Next on Patriarchy Theater: Breast Ironing!

Isn't the world a wonderful place to be a girl?

Quote :

There is a practice called “breast ironing” in the African country of Cameroon, a practice which involves flattening a girl’s growing breasts with hot stones to prevent her nipples from being firm and “enticing men.” The news network CurrentTV filmed a short documentary on “breast ironing,” specifically how mothers believe it will “protect”
their daughters from teen pregnancy if men are not tempted by their
pert breasts.

By the by, here's a youtube link to that short documentary.

Quote :

Girls as young as 9 have their breasts ironed as soon as
they start to develop, which is happening earlier and earlier as
nutrition improves. According to CurrentTV, half of young girls under
age 9 who develop early suffer from the practice. Not surprisingly,
breast ironing causes numerous health problems, such as burns and
abscesses — to say nothing of the psychological damage it must do.

So let's see what we've got here. The idea that a girl who isn't even ten years old can seduce anyone. Blaming women for men not being able to keep hold of their penises. Ritual scarring as a direct response to a fear of female sexuality. A profound lack of concern for the emotional and physical well-being of young girls.

Oh yeah, there's gonna be a lot of rage in this thread.

So is this going to be a repeat of the FGM thread? 'Cause it boils down to the same issues.

How does burning flatten boobs?

Jesus. wrote:

How does burning flatten boobs?

I'm assuming they just burn the nipple...

wait no what is this why are they doing this

Jesus. wrote:

How does burning flatten boobs?

...Scar tissue? *shrugs* That can bind up normal breast skin and change how it hangs or pokes out -- I know this from personal experience.

I've heard of this; apparently some variants of this mutilation involve binding and beating of the breasts.

The strange thing about this is, most painful or disfiguring involuntary surgeries/mutilations performed on children involving making them 'attractive', 'fit', or 'proper' to have as a wife/husband, like footbinding and FGM for girls. Yet this seems to be discouraging. I have to wonder where this practice fits in with that since it is explicitly discouraging male attention -- do men in this society consider a woman 'loose' if she hasn't had this done? Is it considered a badge of honor, or something?

Just... sick, sick, so fucking sick. Lying on your developing breasts is uncomfortable enough... I can't imagine what having your parents BURN or BEAT them feels like...

Though, this really isn't News; I think it should go in Subcultures.

And why is it the little girl's fault that the men may be enticed by a hard nipple?




Maybe it's not even her nipple they're looking at.

Maybe there's a yeti behind her or something. And they've pissed themselves with fear.

Seriously though: Who comes up with this shit? What kind of person? WTF

pirategrrl wrote:

And why is it the little girl's fault that the men may be enticed by a hard nipple?




Maybe it's not even her nipple they're looking at.

Maybe there's a yeti behind her or something. And they've pissed themselves with fear.

Seriously though: Who comes up with this shit? What kind of person? WTF

A good many of these tribal practices literally go back centuries. They've found references to FGM being practiced in Egypt in 63 BC, which predates both the rise of Christianity and Islam, and there is no mention in either The Bible or the Koran to FGM. This, apparently, is one practice we can't blame on modern religion.

What I would wonder is how do they manage to 'burn' the nipple to make it suitably flat, but not destroy it so completely the woman can't breast feed when she has children? Since in the vast majority of these societies women regularly breast feed.

I remember when we had this thread back on GAFF.

In 2005.

I believe I said something like "If 85% of Africa were to be swallowed into hell, Earth would be a nicer place, and hell would decline."

Rabid Badger wrote:

What I would wonder is how do they manage to 'burn' the nipple to make it suitably flat, but not destroy it so completely the woman can't breast feed when she has children?

This, times a million.

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, weighing some seventy thousand pounds, we have a group of conscious Western consumer boycotting Nestlé over their unethical campaigns promoting formula in Third World countries; and in this corner, weighing seventy thousand pounds as well, we have a culture doing some weird shit that will force the next generation to depend entirely on formula if the practice takes hold.

The match will begin in seconds! But first, a few words from our sponsor, ..."Lion" chocolate bars.