In 1559 Columbus discovered the clitoris (dulcedo amoris) -- Renaldus Columbus, that is. He sailed into it during one of his anatomical voyages, although Gabriele Fallopius disputed this, insisting that he had seen the hillock first. Permit me to draw an analogy between the two exploring Columbuses, Christopher and Renaldus. Their disclosures, less than a hundred years apart, the former of a body of land, the latter of a body part, share a familiar hubris, one of hierarchical perspective. In the case of the new world, the viewer looking down is European. In the clitoral case, he is a man. Both the peoples who had been living on 'New World' soil for thousands of years and, I dare say, most women would have been stupefied by these 'discoveries.'
Siri Hustvedt, The Summer Without Men