(no subject)
As a general matter, I try really hard not to judge other people's traditions. I'm taking anthropology at the moment, and there are some strange customs, but I've tried really hard to be open and understand why people do what they do and to see things from their perspective, because I'm sure my customs look idiotic to them. But right now I'm reading an article about female genital cutting, and I believe this is the one thing in all the world that I can NEVER see from their perspective. Just reading about it, I'm about to either puke or cry. I don't understand how anyone could see it as a good thing. How can it not be clear that they're hurting their children? Completely innocent little girls...and telling them it's for their own good, to the point where some of them WANT to get it done. I'm trying so hard not to judge it and to understand how they think about it and to see why they do it, but I can't get past the descriptions of the actual physical things that they do. It's terrifying and disgusting. It's like telling girls that at the core of their sexuality, their very sexual organs, they are WRONG unless they have been physically and rather violently changed. What kind of a way is that to raise someone???? It's like telling them that they're not sexually appealing to anyone (AS A FREAKING 6 YEAR OLD!) unless they have had pieces of their vagina cut off. It's sickening to me, and I don't understand how anyone who had had it done to them could do it to someone else and say it's the right thing to do.
I'm going to be sick.
I'm going to be sick.