BREAST ironing? Really?

Posted On July 30, 2011

This is NOT done to smooth out wrinkles. It’s a cultural practice in Cameroon. I read this article in CNN Health and had to share what is a truly bizarre practice.

This is so weird: mothers take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press the breasts of their young girls.

Why, you ask? What are you, crazy, you scream?

Mothers do this to their daughters to make their little girls less desirable to boys — as a route to prevent pregnancy. Riiight, it’s the old disfigurement strategy!! Genius, right? With just a little mutilation, if you make them horrid enough, then you can prevent SO many unwanted pregnancies.

Plus, that way you don’t have to talk to them about being responsible, you don’t have to teach the boys about being respectful to women. Whew!! Glad we didn’t have to go through THAT.

The US State Department, in its 2010 human rights report on Cameroon, cited news reports and said breast ironing affects an amazing one in every four girls in Cameroon.

But Wouldn’t This Work For Boys Too?

Rather than making the girls less attractive so those poor boys just can’t help themselves, why not just make the boys … blind? Hey, problem solved?

Or, or, or, you could make them lame so the girls could outrun them … or maybe we just apply testicle ironing to prevent those boys from having the desire in the first place. Gosh, there are SO many options here.