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Monday, July 10, 2006
Ironing breasts
Reuters reports from Cameroon:
We all have two selves, don't we: the animal self and the rational self? I know, I know, simplistic dichotomy and so on, but you know what I'm getting at. At one level, I'm horrified by this report (as I was by this one, which I'd linked to here); at another, I'm the man the mother in the story is worried about, checking out the chicas that pass by as I type this on my laptop. The rational me and the animal me are always in conflict, and of course, the rational me is always in charge. At least I like to think so.
(And here's a previous post on mutilation and moral relativism.)
Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone.The report informs us that this is "a traditional practice in West Africa."
"I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," Moungang said.
"They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good."
We all have two selves, don't we: the animal self and the rational self? I know, I know, simplistic dichotomy and so on, but you know what I'm getting at. At one level, I'm horrified by this report (as I was by this one, which I'd linked to here); at another, I'm the man the mother in the story is worried about, checking out the chicas that pass by as I type this on my laptop. The rational me and the animal me are always in conflict, and of course, the rational me is always in charge. At least I like to think so.
(And here's a previous post on mutilation and moral relativism.)
