Incorrect variation on
mangina, pretaining to the unusual elongation of a woman
clitoris, thus forming a manjina
See also:
mangina, maninitis and variants of this theme
Sinistrari, a Roman inquisitor of the early sixteenth century, fantasized about women with elongated clitorises raping men. He also claimed that only women with excessively large clitorises could engage in 'sodomy' with
one another. If a charge was brought against a woman, competent midwives should examine her to ascertain if her
clitoris was enlarged.
The spotted hyena female has a very large
clitoris, such that it is often mistaken for the male. In
fact, in ancient natural histories the hyena is described as an animal which changes back and forth between the two genders. Two Aesop fables are based on this idea. In Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb Classics) 242 & 243 (p 470) a
fox remarks that it doesn't greet the hyena because it doesn't know whether to address it as a male or female, and when
one hyena propositions another the second replies, "Alright, but what you do to me someone else will do to you." The Epistle to Barnabus
10.7 in the Apostolic Fathers also remarks on the Hyena sex
change. The reason for the enlarged
clitoris is the high levels of androgens in the female pup. The androgens are necessary to keep the female pup as aggressive as her brothers; otherwise she probably wouldn't survive their aggression in the close confines of the den.