It’s Friday and I got quite a good view of the eclipse this morning. It was a bit cloudy, but there was plenty of chances to see it clearly. It wasn’t a total eclipse, about 85% or something this far south. I think the Scottish highlands got a better eclipse, but they had cloud. I don’t think I’ll see the next UK total eclipse since I would be 123 years old, but who knows. So far I’ve been immortal.
I had my last creative writing class on Tuesday. I read my short story out. I’m not shy, but I do have a bit of an issue with reading my own work out. I did manage it however and it was well received. My teacher said she could hear my voice in it, and that it had good flow and rhythm. I thin that’s a positive view. I’m toying with the idea of going back to the advanced class, but I think you need a project, like a novel or something. Of course, I could start something. I’ll miss the people I met there. They were all nice.
I took the day off work yesterday to see the eye specialist at the hospital. I have Fuch’s Distrophy in my family, but it looks very much like I don’t have it. This is a very good thing because it means I can’t pass it on the the boy. I had to wait around for ages, but I saw a very nice Russian doctor with huge bosoms. I was then passed over to a consultant for a second opinion. They both seemed more interested in my Horner’s Syndrome condition which gives me my different coloured eyes than the potential Fuch’s.
It’s the boy’s birthday tomorrow. In fact, although it’s his birthday, he is attending the birthday party of another friend. They are going to laser quest to shoot each other.
Right, let’s talk about Female Circumcision, now fashionably termed “Female genital Mutilation,” or “FGM”. Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen, carving up a female’s genitals to control her sex life is an activity of the morally bankrupt. I am for that reason broadly in favour of legislation that comes down hard on the butchers. And for the record, I feel the same way about Male circumcision, though it is not generally performed as a means of control. However, as usual British legislation has got it about as completely wrong as it’s possible to get. From next month the NHS will apparently be recording all cases of female genital piercing as FGM.
Now this is a subject close to my heart since I had my willy pierced 20 years ago for a bet. Rather than listen to me rant about it, you should read the article here in yesterday’s Evening Standard.
As usual, I have an opinion. For a start, and I think this is important, surely one would think that classing cosmetic piercings in the same bracket as female circumcision is not only ridiculous simply because they are completely different things; but also it rather diminishes the seriousness of the FGM issue. In other words, if you consider FGM to be only as abusive as a consensual clitoral hood piercing, that’s quite a slap in the face to those women who have been mutilated by scummy individuals trying to control girls’ sex lives before they even reached puberty.
But over and above the obvious issues, there are dozens of other problems with the defining female genital piercing as mutilation. For instance, apparently male genital piercings don’t count as mutilation. Rather difficult to justify that isn’t it? Why is it I can get my penis pierced, but a woman can’t have her labia pierced? And then there is the whole issue of male circumcision. Apparently it’s fine for unqualified people to slice off boys’ foreskins before they can even speak, let alone consent, without any medical justification. There should be rioting in the streets about that. Also, it would appear that any piercing shop that now performs female genital piercing is at risk of being found guilty of FGM. Well that’s going to work well isn’t it.
I’m going to leave you with a quote from the Department of Health as reported in yesterday’s Evening Standard.
“A Department of Health spokesman confirmed the move and said that piercings were a form of FGM even when performed on consenting adult women.
He added: ‘While there are challenges in this area and adult women may have genital piercings, in some communities girls are forced to have them. The World Health Organisation has quite rightly defined this as a form of FGM. We are taking every precaution to record genital piercings that have been done within an abusive context.’“
I genuinely don’t know what to make of that. The DoH appears to be saying that all female genital piercings will be recorded as an act of FGM and that all female genital piercings are “done within an abusive context”. Also, I’d like to hear about communities that force women t have genital piercings, because frankly that sounds like something you just made up!
Loading comments...