Hank: Hello, and welcome to SciShow talk show
- the day on SciShow where we talk to cool
people about cool stuff. Today, we have joining
us Dr. Lindsey Doe, host of Sexplanations
and sexologist extraordinaire. How's it going?
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Pretty great. How are you?
Hank: I'm good. I'm good. It's been a weird
day.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: I'm glad you called me a
sexologist because I am going to talk to you
about clits, and I am not a clitorologist.
Hank: K
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Here we go. This is a model.
I think I got it for 20 bucks off of Amazon.
Super cheap, but has enough detail to include
the circulatory system. And you can see a
clitoris on it, true?
Hank: yes
Dr. Lindsey Doe: But you can't really see
the clitoris. And um, I don't know if it's
that they're lazy or they didn't know it,
but because a lot of the model shows the internal
parts, they should show the internal part
of the clitoris.
Hank: Well it's... I mean, it's a small model,
there's not a lot of space to do that with.
I'm going to give them the benefit of the
doubt.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Hank-!
Hank: - Is this just an egg? or..
Dr: Lindsey Doe: yeah
Dr. Lindsey Doe: but it's a model of the female
reproductive system, the clitoris is clearly
important!
Hank (at the same time): Cause they blew up
the egg-
Hank: I agree. I agree with you. Just like
the egg is important. They should have over
here a blown up clitoris.
Dr: Lindsey Doe: They should just remove this.
Hank: What is that?
Dr. Lindsey Doe: this is the urethra and the
bladder! It doesn't even matter!
(Laughter)
Hank: This isn't part of this!
Dr. Lindsey Doe: No!
Hank: No, that's true.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: So maybe you don't know what
the clitoris looks like. Do you know what
the clitoris looks? Like, Can I teach you
and your people?
Hank: Yeah, just go ahead.
Dr: Lindsey Doe: Ok, in a lot of the textbook
diagrams of female reproductive systems, you
have this tiny little carrot-sized baby carrot
nub that maybe goes in what would be about
a centimeter and then just cuts off. and that
is the illustrated information that human
sexuality students are getting around the
world.
Hank: Hmm.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: even though in 1998 -
Hank: That is not the case...
Dr. Lindsey Doe: It's not the case. We found
that this is not the case. THIS -
Hank: Is a wishbone.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: - is the clitoris.
Hank: Is a clitoris?
Dr: Lindsey Doe: Is a clitoris
Dr. Lindsey Doe: we're not going to (laughter)
NO!
Hank: I... uh this is not what, in my mind,
a clitoris looks like. Cause it has these
tail things. I was not aware of them.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: How could you be? Nobody
teaches it! and if we talk about it then you
have the repercussion of profanity - being
tagged with using profane language. So, in
an anatomy lesson, you will get something
that looks like these.
Hank: ok.
Dr: Lindsey Doe: If you're lucky, there will
be labia minora, which are these inner lips;
the vestibule which is, you know, the porch
to the vagina, this space here; then there
will be a meatus which is the opening to the
urethra, the vaginal introitus, which is the
opening to the vagina; and then up here you
may or may not see the clitoral glans or the
head.
hank: Ok.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: And I'm going to point to
myself because, when I teach about this, I
use my head as the glans or had of the clitoris.
And then covering that - oh yeah! - there's
a hood.
Hank: There's a hood
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Ok, this is called the prepuce.
and it covers the shaft of the clitoris; but
the rest of it is actually internal. It goes
in the body like... that. (demonstrating on
model)
Hank: and what is the purple thing going on
there
Dr: Lindsey Doe: So it's underneath the labia
-
Hank: - is that like musculature?
Dr: Lindsey Doe: This is another part of the
clitoris: vestibular bulbs
Hank: So there's even more to it.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: There's even more to it.
Hank: oh my god.....Can we... say much about
the function of these various parts?
Dr. Lindsey Doe: *sigh* No. They're not sure
if it was adaptive or reproductive. What they
do know is that this is the most highly erogenous
zone on a biosex female body, and what it
will actually do when (and if) the person
becomes aroused is go from this flaccid state
to become more erect. And when it does that
and stretches out, the clitoris will actually
pull up under the hood more, right, because
it's going like that.
Hank: mhmm, mhmm,
Dr. Lindsey Doe: so it's actually harder to
find when it's aroused or harder to find when
you'd be looking for it.
Hank: hmm, that's annoying. (laughter)
Hank: (to crew off-screen) you guys are allowed
to laugh!
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Oh man. Yeah. So that's the
science of my field at least, is that there
is *so much* that people aren't talking about.
Hank: well um, so what I'm seeing here is.
So this is all erogenous tissue.
Dr: Lindsey Doe: Mhmm.
Hank: So then this is wrapping around the
whole vagina.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: And this. Yeah
Hank: um, and so...
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Here's a vagina, and I put
a little bit of hymen in it for you.
Hank: Oh good. Thanks.
(laughter)
Dr. Lindsey Doe: You're welcome.
Hank: (to crew off-screen) I think it would
be better if we could hear you guys laughing,
actually.
(laughter off screen)
Hank: Um, so is that removable or is that
just some chewing gum that you put in there.
Dr Lindsey Doe: That is clay that I didn't
bake.
Hank: Ok
Dr. Lindsey Doe: But you can -
Hank: Did you make this yourself?
Dr. Lindsey Doe: I did!
Hank: Oh! I don't know why I didn't think
that. When I first saw this in your bag before
the show started, I was like "why did she
bring a trachea? That's a weird thing to bring
along."
Dr. Lindsey Doe: And then you're like "ah
it's a vagina!"
Hank: Ok. What a wonderful thing that you've
made.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Thank you! It can stand up
on its own, too.
Hank: Yeah, I mean that it makes sense that
there would be erogenous tissue to the sides
of the vagina so that sex was pleasurable.
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Exactly.
Hank: Fascinating. Well, if someone wants
to get into studying female anatomy, and learning
more about this - these things that we apparently
know very little about, I would encourage
them to do that.
Hank: So we're going to be visited now by
an animal. Jessi from Animal Wonders will
be joining us, and I think it's going to be
a snake. How do you feel about that?
Dr. Lindsey Doe: Very excited!
Hank: me too!
Hank: Jessi, what have you brought us today?
Jessi: I brought a snake!
Hank: Yeah, you did.
Jessi: This is a Western Hognose Snake
Hank: It's beautiful. I like its patterns
Jessi: Look at its face!
Hank: Yeah, it has really interesting weird...
oh it's got a snout!
Jessi: Yeah! Yeah!
Hank: It's got a snout like it's a pig...
or a hog!
Jessi: There you go. Exactly. Exactly. A Hognose
Snake. they're also called blowsnakes or bluffers
too, but -
Hank: Do they inflate themselves?
Jessi: I'm going to talk about it.
Hank: Well you called them blowsnakes and
didn't expect me to mention that?
Jessi: I know. I know. (laughter) So you talked
about the pattern first; and what do you think
it's mimicking? it's trying to mimic something.
What do you think it's trying to mimic?
Hank: Rocks on the ground?
Jessi: It's camouflage too. but it's trying
to mimic another animal.
Hank: oh. A rattle snake?
Jessi:yeah! Exactly!
Dr. Lindsey Doe: well done
Jessi: Yeah they're doing a pretty good job
there. So it's going to do a couple o f other
things too - if its really threatened, first
thing it's going to do is it's going to inflate
itself.
(hank imitates inflating himself)
Jessi: mostly like.... not like being fat.
Hank: going to be like a see urchin. Puffer
fish. Spines will come out.
Jessi: oh geeze - terrifying snake with spines.
Um, so it's going to inflate this upper neck
area right here, and it's going to stand up
a little bit and look like a cobra. It's also
going to inhale a lot of air and do fake strikes
as it exhales very quickly so it will go "whoo
whoo whoo" (imitating rapid exhalations) and
it's trying to be scary.
Hank: That sounds scary.
Jessi: It's scary. When he gets nervous sometimes
and he's done it when I've been close to him
too. So, it's scary. I can attest to that.
Hank: and I'm sure there are little teeth.
This is not a poisonous snake but they will...
ok.. wait...
(laughter)
Jessi: so (laughing) move away! I always joke
that 'I wouldn't bring a venomous snake, would
I?" So that striking movement that they're
going to do, they actually do with their mouths
closed. So they're not actually going to bite
when they strike. It's very rare to get one
of these to strike in defense. If they keep
getting messed with after they've struck a
few times, they will go limp. they will flip
their body over - see that nice dark under
there - they will actually open their mouth
and their tongue will hang out.
Hank: this is the most elaborate fake death
ever.
Jessi: They'll convulse a little bit too!
Just full on! And they will emit a very foul
smell out of their mouth and also out their
cloaca. And they will just lay there and if
you pick the up they'll be limp, and if you
try to turn them right side over they will
roll back over. They'll be like "No, I am
dead. I am dead."
Hank: I am super dead, see?
Jessi: So they're really cool. they play dead
I mean it's really awesome. They're very dramatic.
Hank: How do they have a foul smell that comes
out of their mouth?
Jessi: Um, you know, I don't really know.
I mean..
Hank: do they have a foul smell gland? I mean
my bet is I know how the butt smells bad.
But there's a special way for its mouth to
smell bad is interesting to me.
Jessi: I don't know. I don't know.
Hank: ewww. So, they roll over, they smell
bad, they hang their tongue out of their mouth
and they convulse. that is a complicated set
of fake death.
Jessi: Yeah, they're serious about their acting.
yeah. So then they'll wait for a while and
when the predator/danger goes away then they'll-
Hank: Why would the danger go away? They'd
be like "oh you're dead, now I don't want
to eat you?"
Jessi: Well it stinks really bad. So it's
musking and it's nasty-
Hank: Yeah, recently there was some turkey
in my fridge and I opened it up and was like
"ewwww" and then I didn't eat it. So it's
like that.
Jessi: I'm glad you didn't eat it.
Hank: Well yeah it seemed like a pretty clear
sign - evolutionary sign. There was a lot
of signals telling me not to do that.
Jessi: olfactory...
Jessi: So, we were talking about venom.
Hank: we were.
Jessi: K. so these are colubridae. They're
in the colubridae group, which means non-venomous
or not harmful to humans.
Hank: ok.
Jessi: so it is thought - they've gone back
and forth back and forth - but right now it's
on on the "we think that they are" slightly
venomous. They're a rear fang snake, so it's
not going to be like vipers who inject venom
into you.
*pause - talking to the snake* upside down?
(laughter) checking out the world that way?
*To Hank* so they kind of chew their venomous
saliva into their prey.
Hank: Mhmm
Jessi: so they don't constrict. they just
go for it and then they're just chewing on
it for quite a while. It's not a very humane
death.
(laughter)
Hank: Well, you know it's the circle of life.
Jessi: Yeah. It's natural
Hank: (to snake) Want to sniff my finger?
Jessi: Venomous snake here. (laughter) You're
fine.
Hank: Thanks for bringing him along. Animal
wonders! Youtube.com/ - (looking off-screen)
(off-screen) animal wonders
Jessi: W-N-D-R-S
Hank: youtube.com/"there's a link in the description!"
Lindsey from Sexplantations, thank you for
sharing your beautiful art and expanding our
understanding of female reproductive anatomy.
And what is this thing even doing here? You're
not reproductive!
Dr. Lindsey Doe: bladder!
Hank: Bladder! (to snake) Do you want to...?
Hank: oh yeah... uh and thank you for watching
this episode of the SciShow Talk Show. If
you want to keep getting smarter with us you
can go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!
