Denial of the Existence of the Clitoris
The third tradition that negatively impacts the clitoris is denial. Most societies deny girls and women the existence of their clitoris. We perform a mental clitoridectomy on them. While they physically have a clitoris, they are not aware of it mentally.
We tell little girls they have a vagina when naming their external genitals. We never mention the words vulva or clitoris. By not telling girls they have a clitoris and a vulva we deny their existence. By calling everything a "vagina" we do not make them aware of the existence of the other genital structures.
If a girl discovers these structures she may feel strange and different, believing no one else has them. The vagina is a hidden organ that cannot be seen so many girls cannot grasp the concept of having one, they can only understand what they can see and touch. Girls should learn they have a vulva and clitoris long before they hear about their vagina.
As part of this denial process we expect girls and women to hide their genitals. We condition girls to be ashamed of their genitals and teach them to keep them hidden. While we probably are not aware of many of the things we do, we still do them.
Why do we insist on little girls wearing underwear to bed under their pajamas and nightgowns? On a hot summer nights why do we put pajamas on them knowing they will be too hot and unable to sleep? Why do we put girls in short dresses yet scold them for allowing their underwear to be seen?
Why do we insist on interrupting their explorations of their genitals, and insist on letting them know of our displeasure with this activity? We hide things we are ashamed of, by hiding our daughter's genitals from them and ourselves, we are saying we are ashamed of them. While we do not need to be nudist to raise sexually healthy daughters, we do need to be careful not to impart the wrong messages on them.