Add another benighted misogynistic practice to genital mutilation and bodily disfigurement that girls have to endure in our world today. As to genital mutilation, it is the all too common practice performed generally by mothers or a female relative in some less advanced countries wherein the clitoris is cut off to take away the pleasure of a woman during sex in an effort to facilitate her chasteness. In regard to bodily disfigurement, male members in some weaker tribes mar the faces and bodies of their wives and daughters to make them less attractive to males of the stronger tribes. Now a new study by GTZ, a German development agency, shows that one in four teenagers in Cameroon are subjected to the painful practice of breast ironing by their relatives to diminish their sexual allure. "Breast ironing" is a tradition in countries of central and western Africa wherein one, usually, mothers, press a young girl's breasts with a hard and/or heated object to stunt their growth. This chilling consuetude can cause acute pain, infections, abscesses, and cancer of the breasts. According to the study, four million women were estimated to have endured this process. An anti-breast ironing campaign is now underway that is patterned after a somewhat successful anti-genital mutilation one.
Cf. http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/07/05/1151779013634.html.
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8 comments:
And all the women's rights activists in Hollywood stood up... or maybe not.
James, you have to remember that these are different cultures. How dare we impose our values upon others, as if we know so much! Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, such as abortion and condoms that are permissable. Remember, too, that these people aren't like us. They don't have the ability to democratize, vote, or assert civil rights. When it comes down to it, they're not people really. I mean they are human, they are just not human with a capital 'H'. Note: this rule also applies to conservatives, especially Southern fundamentalist Christian conservatives.
Joseph, I think that your sentiment of skepticism is well founded with regard to many feminists, academics, and the main stream press. However, they have been rather ardent advocates of women's rights as to genital mutilation: perhaps, their view of human sexuality plays no mean part in such support.
Bad joke up front: Thanks for keeping us abreast of this most titilating topic.
Jo-Jo is right, I think that we not dare impose our western values on these people(just kidding, of course). Unless, of course, it advances a liberal, left-wing agenda.
This a good example of what happens to natural man with a sinful nature, when left alone, does not have an "up" trend. Kind of reminds me of the argument for evolution. How does order come from entropy? As the scots say "...it doesna...".
Jon, it is amazing that we can digress so far when we have lost our moral compass. The eradication of beauty in some lands is not fully dissimilar to our erasure of truth from public discourse.
James, although I know what you mean, I have to quibble with the way you said it. Apart from God's common grace to man, we are all born lost, but with our moral compass pointing us away from God and toward rebellion against His laws. It's not surprising, in that light, to see people doing this type of thing to each other. It's more of a surprise that it's not more commonplace.
However, do you think that the world is getting better, staying about the same, or getting worse, J?
My opinion, yours and anyone elses, is skewed, at best, on this James.
God allows the world to have it's ups and downs and that there is too much information to assimilate to accurately say whether or not it's getting better, worse or staying the same. While our senses are generally reliable, we have to rely on what the Bible says about human nature, even our own, rather than trying to think of the "world" in general. God has allowed some things to better our lives, by his grace. And yet, there seems to be seems to be many people who have become very depraved and evil. So, making the judgement of better, worse or same is tantamount to estimating the oceans depth with a microscope.
I certainly don't have all the answers: I do think that as Christ is proclaimed throughout the world and white fields are being harvested that light is being brought more and more into the world and that those who love darkness are having less and less of it to hide in.
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