May 24, 2004
Tonight's topic: Clitoridectomies...how can they still be going on?
Ok, for any of you who don't know what a clitoridectomy is (which you should be able to figure out), it is where the clitoris is surgically removed from a pre-puberty-aged girl. Yes, that would be one of the most painful feelings in the world. I say one of them because there are still also infibulations that take place. An infibulation is when someone surgically removes the clitoris, the outer lips and the inner lips from a girl and sews up the hole, leaving a small opening for urine and menstrual blood to get out. Sadly, both of these are done under unsanitary conditions, oh and without anesthesia, and many girls die of infection from the surgery in both cases, or in the latter case, they die because the hole isn't big enough for all of the waste and fluids to get out. Then, to make matters worse, when it comes time for the girl to be married and have sex with her husband, they open...fucking OPEN!!!...the hole so it's big enough for his penis to go into her. That can be painful too, the opening process, beause there is a layer of scar tissue that healed over the cut, so they literally have to cut the skin apart. Both of these are outlawed within the US borders, but it's still going on today in the Middle East and Africa.
Many girls don't know that this is a violation of human rights. For them, it is just a painful rite of passage so she can become a woman. I'm sorry, but if I'd have to go through that fucking pain to be a woman in that society, I'd rather be considered a girl forever. I mean, shit...how can a mother allow her daughter to go through that?! Then, considering that most die, either from infection, or complications, or whatever...I couldn't live with myself if I had to allow my daughter to go through that. I just don't understand. Oh, and please, don't confuse this with male circumcision, because the male equivalent to this would be cutting the guy's penis off. So yeah, don't make the mistake of assuming.
Oh, and by the way, if a girl doesn't die from either of these procedures, there could also be complications by having a more painful menstrual cycle, more painful and/or obstructed childbirth, bleeding other than during the menstrual cycle, urinary problems, and again, death. This really amazes me. I know that many of these societies are not as 'advanced' as ours, but still, this shouldn't be allowed. They say that it's a tradition for their religion, but nowhere in the Koran does it say that a female's genetalia have to be mutilated for Allah to be happy. Honestly, I think that this is just a way for the males to controle the females of the society. They believe that by cutting these things off and/or sewing up the hole, they will take away her sex drive. Well duh, they're going to! Who the fuck would want to have sex with men of that society when they fucking mutilate their women in order to have control?! I mean, shit, and the process that the woman has to go through in order to open the hole...*shudders*...yeah, that would hurt just as much, if not more than the process to close it.
Y'all can thank my psychology book for this entry, because I read a small insert inside it about how this is still going on today. And yes, it IS still going on today, because this book was just published this past year. And by the way, I'm not saying that we need to do something about it, but I'm saying that we need to try and educate the governments of these countries so they can educate their people. Who knows, if we tried to do it, maybe other countries would join in, too. You never know. But this procedure does need to end; it definitely is inhumane. |
