The legs and lungs vacation continues. We knew someone in Grahamstown a long time ago who had a cold, went for a run, and dropped dead. I would prefer that not to happen to me, so on Wednesday only, I think I will attempt a little run again.
So Molly ran and I walked on the beach today, me contemplating how incredibly beautiful it was, and how lucky I am in nearly every way, and Molly probably fixating purely on the yellow god-ball.
Walking along, safe and sound, I remembered a phone conversation Tim had with a very dear South African friend yesterday, who told us about his eldest daughter, an amazing kid who has always had an enormous social conscience. She worked as a volunteer in Palestine, before winning a scholarship to go to Oxford to do her Master's degree, which she has recently completed, her major area of research being Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Somalia.
And I wonder what luck it was that I was born into the family I had.
That I was loved and educated and encouraged to find my own "road less travelled".
That at an appropriate age I learned the pleasures of sex happily, with birth control readily available and relatively easy.
That I have loved literature and art and been able to live my life according to principles I have chosen.
That I have had four wanted babies, two of them popping out the natural way, the other two being born by C-section, which saved my life, and theirs.
That I am not a slave to my husband, sexual or otherwise.
That I have earned my own way my entire life, only in the last ten years in America earning less than my husband, and that partially because I only work part-time.
I read Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy in 1992, when it came out, and was shocked and horrified by the reality of FGM, a practice I had vaguely heard about only a few years before. I am utterly outraged by this "cultural tradition", which continues today more than ever! The number of women suffering and dying is expanding, even though, as early as 1952, a UN Commission on Human Rights condemned the practice! Although there is a blackout on information about sexual practices in Islamic countries, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that this is very common in Islamic countries, and in Egypt 90% of women are affected! FGM takes place predominantly in North Africa and the Middle East.
It is indicative of a complete disdain for women, that a tradition exists, one which women themselves carry out, whereby various levels of mutilation are carried out, some simply cutting off the clitoris, so that little or no sexual pleasure is felt, others going so far as to cut off the labia and basically sew the vulva closed, which then has to be cut open for intercourse and childbearing. Yes, that is what happens! Good grief, that we live in this world of such utter absurdity.
How do such things even begin? I am amazed (in my 20th and 21st century Western feminist mind) that women would let these things be done to their daughters, and participate voluntarily in such abuse. It is similarly incomprehensible that Chinese women had their feet bound for so many centuries, and much of the reasons are the same, so that women remain subjective and conformist and exist only to render sexual pleasure to the men in the society and to work and raise the children of said barbaric men.
And people are outraged about full-body scanners at airports, there are whole articles in the paper devoted to this new outrage! And other small-minded selfish and nasty people put up signs on the beach (which thankfully are ignored in winter) saying NO DOGS ALLOWED AT ANY TIME. Police Take Notice. And still others get all upset that homosexuals can get married in several states now, including ours, because "it is making a mockery of the whole institution of marriage". Since when did two men or two women getting married affect a heterosexual marriage in any way?
And the MFA has opened a new multi-million dollar wing, a beautiful addition, filled with the Art of the Americas, showcasing centuries of American art, from pre-history until today, and I feel vaguely guilty that I get to do amazing and privileged things every day, that I will be able to explore this new space, stand before beautiful images and sculptures, that beauty and pleasure exist in such a real way for me, while another little girl is brutally mutilated, on the other side of the world, to begin her life of psychological and physical servitude and torture.
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