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Highlighting this for importance: “When I returned to France to treat genital mutilation, I was amazed that they were never tried. The medical

by ceol 13y ago

Highlighting this for importance: “When I returned to France to treat genital mutilation, I was amazed that they were never tried. The medical literature tells us the truth about our contempt for women. For three centuries, there are thousands of references to penile surgery, nothing on the clitoris, except for some cancers or dermatology -and nothing to restore its sensitivity. The very existence of an organ of pleasure is denied, medically. Today, if you look at the anatomy books that all surgeons have, you will find two pages above. There is a real intellectual excision.“ No doubt someone will try to nitpick it, saying something like, "Well <inconsequential part of a man's body> wasn't documented until <year slightly earlier than 2009> so I don't see why it's such a big deal!" The fact of the matter is, though, that a body part crucial to a woman's sexual pleasure wasn't even properly documented until 2009, while a pill released solely to make men have more sex was put on the market 10 years earlier.[0] In a world where 140 million women have experienced genital mutilation,[1] and women are still shamed for having any sort of sexual experience[2] to the point where politicians[3] and even pharmacists[4] want to ban birth control, there's no way that's not indicative of a problem our culture still has regarding female sexuality. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sildenafil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sildenafil [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slut-shaming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slut-shaming [3]: http://www.care2.com/causes/after-banning-almost-all-abortions-arkansas-gop-targets-birth-control.html http://www.care2.com/causes/after-banning-almost-all-abortio... [4]: http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/new-birth-control-ban http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/new-birth-co... Edit: Of course this story disappears off the front page. Oh sure, an article about a 1912 school test and yet another log on the NSA hate fire sit up at #1 and #3 respectively, but God forbid someone posts about female genitalia. Really just proving the point.

javert 13y ago
> to the point where politicians[3] and even pharmacists[4] want to ban birth control If you want this problem to get better, it would help to blame the right thing, which is religion.
- ceol 13y ago
  ...which oppresses female sexuality. Saying it's the fault of religion doesn't help solve anything. It's individuals who decide to interpret the Bible in ways that harm women, just like other individuals can consider themselves Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, and still support women's right to birth control.
  - javert 13y ago
    > It's individuals who decide to interpret the Bible in ways that harm women And on what grounds are you going to claim that they should interpret their holy books differently? There is only one valid, fundamental basis for making arguments one way or another, and that's reason. Religion is a systematic (albeit, potentially compartmentalized) rejection of reason. Fortunately, going by reason, we can establish (with significant effort) that it is in everyone's interest to recognize certain rights for human beings, and we can institute governments to protect those rights. And, we can establish (with some effort) that hurting women is destructive and evil and malevolent. Trying to argue from any other perspective is just saying, "It should be this way, just because."

by ceol 13y ago

javert 13y ago

> to the point where politicians[3] and even pharmacists[4] want to ban birth control If you want this problem to get better, it would help to blame the right thing, which is religion.

ceol 13y ago
...which oppresses female sexuality. Saying it's the fault of religion doesn't help solve anything. It's individuals who decide to interpret the Bible in ways that harm women, just like other individuals can consider themselves Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, and still support women's right to birth control.
- javert 13y ago
  > It's individuals who decide to interpret the Bible in ways that harm women And on what grounds are you going to claim that they should interpret their holy books differently? There is only one valid, fundamental basis for making arguments one way or another, and that's reason. Religion is a systematic (albeit, potentially compartmentalized) rejection of reason. Fortunately, going by reason, we can establish (with significant effort) that it is in everyone's interest to recognize certain rights for human beings, and we can institute governments to protect those rights. And, we can establish (with some effort) that hurting women is destructive and evil and malevolent. Trying to argue from any other perspective is just saying, "It should be this way, just because."