Last night I hosted a film screening for a documentary about female genital mutilation, Mrs. Gundo’s Daughter and it was ultimately more upsetting then I was prepared for.
I went into this thinking, “Ok, I think male circumcision is wrong, this will feel like that. I will accept and respect this practice yet be personally against it.” No. No.
FGM is so wrong, such a crime against humanity. It is performed to control a woman’s sexual urges and pleasure. It varies in how much is cut, and in some cases everything is removed, making carrying a child full term impossible for some.
What the fuck is wrong with us? Why is it that we are born complete and then our human minds turn around and go, “you know what, let’s chop off the fruit of small females, let’s put implants in our breasts and make billions selling breast cancer, let’s make men with hair on their backs think they are apes and unfuckable, let’s say it’s sinful for one man to fuck another man in the ass when it’s just another hole, let’s make women cover every part of themselves except their eyes because they are all whores baiting men’s desires, and while we are at it let’s culturally enforce heterosexual marriage and monogamy as the white picket fence that I’m guessing half of all married people are drying up and rotting behind and then needing the food channel, porn, pills, and yoga to get through the day because it is also really unnatural.
“Sorry Sally, you are all I think about, but Jane and I have a mortgage and Kevin won’t do well in college if I do the one thing I want more than anything and touch you. But on my death-bed I will still be dreaming of you and wondering how your tender lips would feel on the base of my neck.” (This is a version of what I think goes through a lot of people’s minds.)
Whew. Too much??
My point is, that to have human sexuality oppressed by an idea is so very sick. I just simply can’t believe how much we are willing to inflict control on others through FGM, laws of gay matrimony, or how men and women buy into the insecurity of their bodies imperfections and then force one another to feel badly about saggy boobs or back hair.
The night ended with me being upset and asking where all the baby twats got thrown, “did they flick them like boogies into the field?” and an hour-long Q & A where an MQA newcomer (who I really was happy to befriend) awesomely interjected this:
“What about Santa? What about lying to our kids about him? How do you all feel about that!?”
Then it came out, that for her on Christmas growing up, she and her siblings had to stand in front of a cardboard fireplace and say the pledge of allegiance.
We all laughed and worked out this woman’s misdirected anger towards the fatso from the north and all was right with the world again. Shiny, heartbreaking, ridiculous and bright.
For me, to be told of the patriotic ridiculousness inflicted on this woman and her siblings in the middle of a painful discussion on the violent ridiculousness of FGM, balanced it all out. Not because I wanted an escape from my anger or feelings at that moment. But I realized, we all suffer from all sorts of idea-based nonsense, be it tradition or religious in origination, and it is all ridiculous and painfully relative, isn’t it?
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