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Original poster

Sensory homunculus

65 replies

JellySlice · 09/04/2020 16:57

I was discussing the sense of touch with dd, and Googled sensory homunulus to show her, because an image is worth a thousand words.

And then I realised that the sensory homunculus is always male. I have never seen a sensory homunculus of a female body. Adding female to the search term just brings up male sensory homunculi with lipstick and nail varnish, or sexualised cartoonish female images.

It won't take a thousand words to explain its absence, but surely someone, somewhere, must have created a sensory image of the female body?

OP posts:
WrathofFaeKIopp · 14/04/2020 09:51

An old study here that suggests female biology has falsely been led by male stereotypes.
It blew my mind at the time.

www.discovermagazine.com/mind/new-theory-on-how-the-aggressive-egg-attracts-sperm

HorseRadishFemish · 14/04/2020 08:50

People will call me a massive homuncophobe but I could never fancy someone with hands and feet like that.

Original poster
JellySlice · 14/04/2020 07:53

This isn't about understanding our bodies from a male POV. This is about stepping away from the male POV entirely. The sensory homunculus is a quantitative understanding of the male body. The male POV is that it is unnecessary to have this quantitative understanding of the female body.

OP posts:
PurpleHoodie · 14/04/2020 04:34

There is a reason why in open places, hetrosexual and bi-sexual women do not fear lesbian women as we are told we must/should do (by men wanting and needing to invade women's spaces):

We understand intimately our collective bodies.

We are not required to understand them from a mans/Male point of view.

Studies are redundant. Or ineffective.

allmywhat · 14/04/2020 00:38

The paper linked on the last page says only the breasts and genitals were actually studied in women and the gaps were filled in with research done on the male default.

Never thought of a Sheela-Na-Gig that way before, it works pretty well as a femunculus!

CircleofWillis · 13/04/2020 23:44

The new scientist article from 2011 reports research on women taken from a brain imaging study.

Original poster
JellySlice · 13/04/2020 23:06

If you look at Gwynfluff's link, you'll see that it's the classic men-as-default. The original research was done on men.

OP posts:
WrathofFaeKIopp · 13/04/2020 22:30

I understand the representation of the male homunculnus but I am puzzled why a female is not readily imagined.

I keep thinking of Sheela na gigs.

Sensory homunculus
Original poster
JellySlice · 13/04/2020 21:52

Is that image truly representative of the female body? Or have they taken the standard default-male image and added the words for female sex organs to the area generally represented as a penis?

OP posts:
CircleofWillis · 13/04/2020 21:11

Here

Sensory homunculus
CircleofWillis · 13/04/2020 21:10

The homunculus is generally shown wrapped around the cerebral cortex.
Here is the female one from the new scientist article.



CircleofWillis · 13/04/2020 21:07

The New Scientist published an article on this topic.

www.newscientist.com/article/dn20770-sex-on-the-brain-what-turns-women-on-mapped-out/amp/

WrathofFaeKIopp · 13/04/2020 20:59

Oh I see, the physical sensations mapped according to sensory signals.
I wonder if this includes hairs standing on end when stimulated, perhaps where there is a sense of impending danger.

Original poster
JellySlice · 13/04/2020 20:44

I would like to see the mind/imagination being represented as well.
Not sure about the baldness though.

This is about physical sensation, not mind or imagination. Hair has no neural connection s that allows it to sense, hence 'baldness'.

OP posts:
TeiTetua · 13/04/2020 19:52

I'd have thought that "Femuncula" would be more correct, though I'm no Latin scholar.

WrathofFaeKIopp · 13/04/2020 19:42

Yes, of course the ears.
I would like to see the mind/imagination being represented as well.
Not sure about the baldness though.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 13/04/2020 19:23

The breasts on the one in the OP are almost perfect circles, but awkwardly placed. Not sure if whoever drew it that way did so because porn saturated or if they're doing that thing that used to happen in art where the artist had no idea what naked women looked like so they just drew male pecs, but bigger and rounder. In any case the nipples are much too small. I also feel like the ears should be bigger on both.

WrathofFaeKIopp · 13/04/2020 19:12

I can't quite place what it is about this that makes me a bit meh.

I imagine it would titilate men who would just laugh at it.

Gwynfluff · 13/04/2020 18:52

Thing is you probably do have to show women with legs akimbo to be accurate if where the sensory area are or you can’t see much.

Original poster
JellySlice · 13/04/2020 18:42

That certainly looks more like what I would expect.

But it is difficult to look at. The prudery is indoctrinated into me!

OP posts:
Gwynfluff · 13/04/2020 13:32

Fascinating. Never knew about this.

This is a good artistic representation

www.methodquarterly.com/2015/02/the-femunuculs/

Rosiejim · 13/04/2020 12:49

Isn’t this just Jez and Superhans band?

MissingLinker · 10/04/2020 12:44

MissingLinker
Looks like the female in the picture is from a typical male perpective.

I know, this was just the only one I could find that wasn't the male model with lipstick on. Confused

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 09/04/2020 23:06

Yes, there is a huge missing clit there, and the boobs/nipples are hopelessly small.

Why is the female's mouth so much larger? Do women have more nerves in our lips, or is that just because the artist thought it looked prettier?

WrathofFaeKIopp · 09/04/2020 23:06

Kantastic
Yes I see what you mean, this information should be out there.

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