manjinah

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.

by Rich March 19, 2003

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