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April 16, 2008 6:35 PM

On current.com, a graphic seven minute documentary on breast ironing. Needless to say, this post is not safe for work. This is a report on the practice. And the wiki page. Links via feministing.org.
posted by prefpara (22 comments total)

I clicked. But, I cannot watch. I am against mutilation in any form and I support all organizations that oppose mutilation. I don't how I feel about male circumcision, because it happened to me involuntarily.
posted by parmanparman at 6:39 PM on April 16

Oh lord. Another horror. The things humans do, sometimes you just want to cry.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:41 PM on April 16

I couldn't watch either.
What to do?
I'm going to try to be extra kind to people tomorrow.
posted by Dizzy at 6:49 PM on April 16

Yet one more failure of the Alabama legislature.
posted by docpops at 6:54 PM on April 16

Ouch.
posted by amyms at 6:57 PM on April 16

Oh wow, I shouldn't have been so flippant with my "ouch" before checking the links. The mothers of these girls are reporting thatthey feel they must take these measures to de-sexualize their girls' appearances because of rampant sexual molestation, rape and early marriage in their culture. Breast ironing seems extreme and unproductive in that regard, though. Men who rape will rape regardless of their victims' breast size. How sad and horrifying for the girls that they have to grow up in a culture of sexual violence AND body mutilation.
posted by amyms at 7:03 PM on April 16

GOOD GOD WHY???




see... although I am totally agnostic, female breasts would be one of the few things that you might get me to admit to (when feeling sentimental) as "possibly of divine origin". The presence of this practice wrenches any remaining vestige of speculative theism from cold, bitter "soul". So... thanks for that. You killed my possibility of god. I hope you're happy.
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 7:07 PM on April 16

sorry. i tried to resist, really i did

i've never heard of this practice before, and it's as horrific as it is pointless.

Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist with GTZ's German-Cameroon HIV/AIDS health program, said that the practice has negative health consequences and is ineffective as a form of sex education.

You don't say.

Ndonko said that because parents are often uncomfortable discussing sex with their children, they "prefer to get rid of the bodily signs of sexuality."

Jebus. Way to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:09 PM on April 16

I don't how I feel about male circumcision, because it happened to me involuntarily.

The unrepentant rural mother in the video said something to a similar effect.
posted by carsonb at 7:11 PM on April 16

see... although I am totally agnostic, female breasts would be one of the few things that you might get me to admit to (when feeling sentimental) as "possibly of divine origin". [...] So... thanks for that. You killed my possibility of god. I hope you're happy.

Wow. Way to make child abuse encouraged by the systematic, institutionalized misogyny of a society which punishes women for the sex crimes of men all about you. Bravo, sir, bravo.
posted by bettafish at 7:16 PM on April 16 [12 favorites]

Yet one more failure of the Alabama legislature.

A yes a dig on the south, thanks I had no idea this story would some how be used as lead in for using the south as a punchline. Great job.
posted by nola at 7:19 PM on April 16

I don't need to click the link, I unfortunately already know about this. Sometimes, you hear or read about things that absolutely pull the breath right out of your chest, make you feel like screaming 'till your voice is gone. For me, FGM and this are two of those things. I'm tearing (TEERing not TAREing) up just allowing my consciousness to approach the borders of these thoughts; if I go too much further in to this post, I'll have a meltdown.

Ignorance isn't bliss.
posted by exlotuseater at 7:23 PM on April 16

How many ways can we find to harm women's bodies when they scare us? This is sick.
posted by caddis at 7:28 PM on April 16 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter: Way to make child abuse encouraged by the systematic, institutionalized misogyny of a society which punishes women for the sex crimes of men all about an obviously flippant, throwaway comment.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:34 PM on April 16 [4 favorites]

UbuRoivas: "Oh, the huge mammaries!"

You read about children being mutilated, in a way that will give them lifelong pain and mental suffering, and you think it's good material for a joke?
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:34 PM on April 16 [2 favorites]

yes. sometimes the only possible reaction to atrocity is humour, and the worse the atrocity, the poorer the taste should be.

it's the same kind of reaction behind as dada & absurdism: "this is so sickening that unless you project everything into a one-dimensional world of flattened, or meaningless, values, it's impossible to go on"
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:03 PM on April 16

Well Ubu, looks like were in this together. On the upside, I hear there is good conversation in hell...
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 8:03 PM on April 16

yes. sometimes the only possible reaction to atrocity is humour, and the worse the atrocity, the poorer the taste should be.

You're not displaying gallow's humor or the black humor that come with resignation to the horrors of the world, so don't try to pretty up your comment by pretending it is something it was not.
posted by Falconetti at 8:21 PM on April 16 [2 favorites]

sorry? i don't understand that point at all.

how is a play on "oh, the humanity!" *not* black humour?!??
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:28 PM on April 16

(that was from the voiceover when the zeppelin Hindenburg hit a mooring pole & burst into flames, killing a bunch of people; just so's you get the reference, because you seem to be struggling a bit)
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:30 PM on April 16

If only there were more context to the link so that we'd know that this is a "jeez, sad abuse" post and not a "lol, crazy self-mutilation" post -- that way we'd know to post a quick and general sad comment rather than a quick and general witticism.

You know, other than reading the link. But who comes to MeFi to read the links, right?
posted by flatluigi at 8:36 PM on April 16

Don't try to get off topic here, MY ego-centric, demeaning post was WAAAY more offensive than Ubu's. He's just trying to steal my thunder.
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 8:38 PM on April 16