Someone wrote to support the idea that it was fine to promote breasts as sex
objects:

>>I agree. The original post had lots of laughs in it. C'mon lactnuts, keep
>your sense of humor....

I have a fine sense of humor.  But there is nothing funny about women and
children dying or being more sick because they were not breastfed/did not
breastfeed.  There is nothing funny about any of the consequences of
promoting breasts as sex objects.

It is SO frustrating to hear women stand up and support ideas and practices
that are oppressive to women.  But (a) some women just don't get it, (b)
some women enjoy the benefits they personally receive from these ideas and
practices, and don't care that many other women and children pay a high
price for their benefits and (c) some women are not willing or don't have
the courage to face the consequences of changing the cultural norms.

These are the reasons why, for example, mothers in China in the 18th and
19th Centuries willingly had their 4 year old daughters' feet bound for two
years, so the foot would become deformed and decayed.  After the binding,
the side 4 toes would be permanently bent under the foot, the heel would be
permanently bent under and forward, the arch would be permanently 6" high,
the bones permanently deformed.  The total length of the foot would be 3-4"
and the smaller the better.  They were called a woman's "Golden Lotuses."
The smaller your feet were, the sexier, the daintier, the more refined,  the
more beautiful, the more "high class" you were.  Sure, it was hard to walk,
and your feet hurt all the time and got infected and smelled of decaying
flesh, and if you got in an argument with your husband, all he had to do was
stomp on your foot to end the fight.  But the men found all this
unbelievably sexy, especially the smell of decaying flesh.  They would sneak
peaks at their wife/mistress/girlfriend undressing and bathing her feet;
they would kiss and suck and caress and fondle the "Golden Lotuses" during
sex.  It was especially erotic if he could get most of the foot in his mouth
during sex.  If you didn't have bound feet, especially really tiny bound
feet, then you were considered ugly, unattractive, low-class, and common,
and you felt bad about yourself.  A woman with unbound feet could not hope
for a high-class marriage.  No woman wanted that, either for herself, or her
daughters.  Mome women liked the high status and the admiring glances and
the chances for a better marriage, and the great boost in self-esteem from
being considered beautiful as a result off tiny feet.  Women were mortified
if their mother-in-law made comments like "She's so ugly, her feet arrived
here five minutes before the rest of her."  It took an amazing amount of
pressure from outsiders and eventually the government of China for this
practice to be abolished, because most of the women did not see what the
problem was, did not want to be the first to live life as an ugly person,
and did not have the courage to refuse to resist their cultural norms.

These are the reasons why, for example, mothers in some African and
southeast Asian countries willingly have their daughters circumcized --
ranging from *just* having the clitoris removed, all the way to full
infibulation, which is removal of the clitoris and labia minora and majora
and sewing up of the raw ends of the labia majora across the midline,
leaving only a small hole for urination and menstruation.  This is done at
various ages, ranging from infancy to late teens, just before marriage.  In
cultures where this is practiced, it is thought that this makes a woman
beautiful, it makes her *clean* (both physically and ritually/religiously),
it makes her honorable, and it helps her control her otherwise
uncontrollable sexual urges.  It makes her sexy to men, it makes her more
attractive, plus it allows her to feel good about herself and boosts her
self-esteem.  It may even protect her babies during childbirth, as in some
cultures it is believed that if the baby of an uncircumcized woman touches
her clitoris during childbirth, the baby will die.  No self-respecting young
girl in these cultures would dream of NOT being circumcized, as they would
be labelled dishonorable, a wanton whore available for any man who wants to
take her, a person of low class, and certainly not someone who could ever be
expected to make a good marriage.  Women in these cultures are often the
strongest proponents of continuing these traditions -- they want their
daughters to be beautiful and respected and to be able to make good
marriages.  The health consequences (death, illness, sterility, scarring,
incontinence) are either not recognized, or considered just the price one
has to pay.  Who would willingly agree to have their daughter grow up
considered an ugly, dirty, whore -- raped any time she goes anywhere without
a chaperone, taunted, not able to get married and have children and live a
normal life.    

Contemplate these two examples.  It is always easier for us to look at the
practices of other cultures that are oppressive to women and label them as
"barbaric" and to wonder why in the world the women in these cultures don't
refuse to participate in these ideas and practices.  It is more difficult
for us to recognize the practices in our own culture that are oppressive to
women in exactly the same way.  

Promoting breasts as sex objects is the same as promoting bound feet or
infibulation. 

Anyone care to defend bound feet or infibulation?

Anyone think these topics are funny??

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University

References on Chinese foot-binding:

Golden Lotus, by C. Egerton, Paperback, Published by Heian Intl Pub Co,
Publication date: June 1979.

Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang; Paperback, 215 pages;
Published by Anchor Books; Publication date: October 1997 [story of one of
the first upper class women to escape foot-binding in the early 20th century]

The Three-Inch Golden Lotus (Fiction from Modern China) by Chi-Tsai Feng,
David Wakefield (Translator), Jicai Feng, Feng Jicai Paperback, 248 pages;
Published by Univ of Hawaii Press, Publication date: March 1994
       
From Booklist , 03/15/94:
Feng Jicai is an extraordinary writer and thinker wildly popular in China
but relatively unknown outside it. His title refers to the ideal size of the
"golden lotus," i.e., the bound foot, revered as the perfection of feminine
beauty and sexual desirability. Feng builds his story around foot binding,
which was not eradicated until the mid-twentieth century. Through the story
of a single family, he recounts both foot binding's horrors--e.g., small
girls' feet wrapped until every bone breaks and intentionally
infected by inserting shards of glass under the bandages to induce
completely new skin to form when the infections heal--and the new horrors
that came when foot binding was outlawed and suddenly what was beautiful
became ugly. Using this story as a metaphor for China's changes during the
Cultural Revolution, Feng brilliantly exposes the implications of political
change for the individual and provides insight into both Chinese history and
the Chinese mindset. Copyright© 1994, American Library Association.


References on female circumcision:

Prisoners of Ritual : An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa;
Hanny Lightfoot-Klein / Paperback / Published 1989 

Warrior Marks : Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women;
Alice Walker / Hardcover / Published 1993 

Cutting the Rose : Female Genital Mutilation : The Practice and Its
Prevention (Minority Rights Publications); Efua Dorkenoo / Hardcover /
Published 1995 

Female Genital Mutilation: Female Circumcision, Excision and Infibulation :
The Facts and Proposals for Change (Minority Rights Group Report, No 47);
Efua Dorkenoo, McLean Scilla / Paperback
                        
The Hosken Report : Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females; Fran P. Hosken
/ Paperback / Published 1994 
                             
Infibulation : Female Mutilation in Islamic Northeastern Africa; Esther K.
Hicks / Hardcover / Published 1993 
                            
An annotated bibliography on female genital mutilations in Africa; C.-J.
Charpentier
                         
Sisters in Affliction : Circumcision and Infibulation of Women in Africa;
Raqiya Abdalla / Published 1983 
                       
Woman, Why Do You Weep? : Circumcision and Its Consequences; Asma El Dareer
/ Published 1983