What would you do if you woke up to find you had breasts, no penis, and a high pitched voice? I know, I know: you would fondle your boobs.
Ok, now, what would you do if you were going to be like that for the rest of your life? Everyone would define you by your boobs, you would never get an…
![iheartprettylesbians:
Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones on August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States. Elders is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization and distributing contraception in schools.[1] She was fired mid-term in December 1994 amidst controversy.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3qd68RyDP1r81imfo1_500.jpg)
Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones on August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States. Elders is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization and distributing contraception in schools.[1] She was fired mid-term in December 1994 amidst controversy.
(Source : safe-legal-abortion-is-prolife)
“The education system is so geared toward fact drilling and rote memorization that students often exit with a head full of dates and formulas, but without the ability to constructively think. Now, if we readjusted the testing and educational system to focus on critical reasoning rather than memorization, then even if we knew fewer facts off the top of our heads — we would be smarter overall. We would take a step toward doubt – and a step toward thinking for ourselves.”
To explain something that was mentioned in the previous post: Since some people don’t know what female genital cutting is, here is a simple diagram, as well as an estimate of how widely practiced it is in Africa. It is also practiced in India, and parts of the middle east, and parts of Asia, but I didn’t see any charts available from a quick Google search. It is often carried out without anesthesia, and not by medical professionals, and is very painful. The clitoris is rarely spared.
I remember reading a excerpt from the book “Desert Flower” as a child, where the author had described being forced down while an old lady sawed off her genitals with a dull blade, and sewed everything shut to one tiny hole for both urine and menstruation to come out of, then bound her legs together. At first, the old lady didn’t cut off her clitoris, but then the grandmother said something like, “Cut that off too. Cut off all this filth. What is it good for anyway?” Or something like that. From then on, only droplets could come out of the one opening, so it took her several minutes just to pee, and she experienced major menstrual complications. After her circumcision, as they call it, her father tried to sell her to an old man as a wife, in exchange for some farm animals. As an adult, having run away, she was able to get a surgery to open this hole and was able to pee normally, but she will never know sexual pleasure. She also mentioned how scary the thought of childbirth was, ripping open the small hole, and how women would sometimes be sewn shut again after childbirth so that they would be tight for their husband’s pleasure. Sex and childbirth for these women must be excruciating, and life threatening, I would imagine.
“Female genital mutilation is classified into four groups. Type 1 is the excision of the clitoral hood, usually as well as the clitoris. Type 2 is the excision of the clitoris andinner labia. Type 3 is commonly called infibulation, which consists of cutting off all external genitalia, and then binding the girl’s legs together for 2-6 weeks so a scar will form over the opening of the vulva. Before this huge scar is formed, a twig is usually stuck in between the flesh to create a small hole for urine and menstrual blood to flow from. The hole that is produced is initially made small enough to prevent women from having sex, but this is problematic because the small opening obstructs blood and urine flow, which causes infection. When a girl who has infibulation is about to have sex the man either tries to force his penis through the hole, or has to cut it with a knife which frequently results in organ damage, urinary incontinence, obstetric fistula, and death. Type 4 includes the following damage to female genitalia: pricking, piercing, burning, cutting, applying corrosive substances to tighten it, and cutting into the vagina to widen it. FGM has many harmful effects such as: hemorrhaging, urinary infection, hepatitis, and HIV (due to unsterile tools), pelvic infections, epidermoid cysts, and infertility.”
Some families living in the UK, the USA, and other countries have continued the practice either in the country, or taking their daughter to have it done outside the country. This has resulted in US laws regarding the practice, as shown in an old 2007 chart.
/ahem. I tried to correct the previous typos.
Not to downplay this, but if this is considered unwillful mutilation, then so should be male circumcision, a very common (majority) practice in the United States especially that is most often overlooked. I see as wrong any “corrective” or aesthetically altering surgery that occurs without the patient’s conscious and fully-informed consent. This includes genital-altering surgery, especially for intersex individuals, but even a “this baby’s penis is too small, let’s make it a girl instead” (which is thankfully declining, but still happens).
We were discussing homosexuality because of an allusion to it in the book we were reading, and several boys made comments such as, “That’s disgusting.” We got into the debate and eventually a boy admitted that he was terrified/disgusted when he was once sharing a taxi and the other male passenger made a pass at him.
The lightbulb went off. “Oh,” I said. “I get it. See, you are afraid, because for the first time in your life you have found yourself a victim of unwanted sexual advances by someone who has the physical ability to use force against you.” The boy nodded and shuddered visibly.
“But,” I continued. “As a woman, you learn to live with that from the time you are fourteen, and it never stops. We live with that fear every day of our lives. Every man walking through the parking garage the same time you are is either just a harmless stranger or a potential rapist. Every time.”
The girls in the room nodded, agreeing. The boys seemed genuinely shocked.
“So think about that the next time you hit on a girl. Maybe, like you in the taxi, she doesn’t actually want you to.”
(Source : andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
What if men were photographed the way women typically were?
I think it’s rather that doing art is comforting; I have rarely found looking at or experiencing art comforting.
(Source : hartboy)
“I play in an all-boys soccer league, and some guy fell on me during a game. But he kinda looked like Ronald Weasley, so I didn’t mind all that much.”
