Saturday, January 26, 2019

Breast ironing and other enormities

I sometimes wonder why I even read the news. I keep discovering horrors and depressing facts I had no idea of. They say that knowledge is power, but they also say that ignorance is bliss, and I'm beginning to wonder whether I wouldn't perhaps prefer bliss to power.
Case in point: I had no idea there was such a thing as "breast ironing" and yes, it's as gross as it sounds. In several African countries, and in various African diaspora populations around the world, it is a common practice for mothers to "iron" the breasts of young girls with a hot stone, in order to "break the tissue" in some way and thereby slow the growth of the girl's breasts.
The idea is to protect the girls from unwanted male attention, sexual harassment and rape, so you could argue that the mothers' intentions were honourable. In fact, though, it leads to physical and psychological scars, an inability to breastfeed, infections, deformities, and even breast cancer. It is, in effect, child abuse, even torture, much like the similar issue of genital mutilation. And now that I know it exists, I can't un-know it.
This "cultural practice" is aparently only recently coming to light in the West, and because of its hidden nature, it's difficult to know how extensive it is, and even more difficult to stamp it out. Some activists and social workers are working to bring this iniquitous practice out into the light of day, though, and all credit to them.
I just wonder what other enormities I am still completely ignorant of...

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