Wow! Thank you so much. That is so interesting you got support on Fetlife. I never would have thought to post there, but that is actually really smart.

I had a fair amount of luck with Facebook honestly. The main issue was that I have not been particularly social for a while and most of my Facebook friends are not on Medium. One friend told me it was an issue that I posted a, “very realistic vulva in everyone’s feeds.” I think many people may not have liked it out of the awkwardness of it. It certainly took me years to start talking. When I first tried in 2012, I felt weird and like people just thought I was a pervert.

Via Facebook, I did actually get connected with a group of women called the Women of Sex Tech. Several liked my post, and I joined. But then I was met with some frustrating responses (such as “we don’t have enough sonograms”) when I asked for help and got myself kicked out for being “too combative.” My interest in this arose because of a personal trauma, so it’s hard to maintain tact sometimes. Some of them are still supportive. But I think maybe the way I’m sort of putting down a field of medicine may be a hard thing to get behind. A woman who had a project called “cliteracy,” Sophia Wallace. recommended an approach less focused on blaming and shaming and more on inspiring. I have been thinking about this, but it’s hard to figure out how to take that angle.

If I could find a way to reframe things, that might be better. One thing I’ve been thinking is hiring a medical illustrator to create more detailed drawings than have ever been done. It just gets hard to invest money into things if I don’t know if it will work. But then I could post the illustrations and say, “most detailed illustrations of the clitoris ever created!” Then maybe this would attract more positive attention. But then getting it into GYN would still be just as challenging it seems.

Honestly there isn’t really research needed for a significant improvement to occur. Lepidi and Di Marino’s anatomic study, which I linked to, is very in depth. My dad and I are mainly doing a study to disseminate the information in plastic surgery literature, though I really do want to clear up a few contradicting conclusions of previous studies. Also, the amount of money necessary for simple anatomic studies is really minimal. It doesn’t seem like illustrations cost too much either. I’m just really cheap, and I have had a hard time figuring out how to find a good medical illustrator. The ones I’ve contacted so far have work that is too artistic.