well...
I usually take a quick look at the question, mull it over while having a mug of coffee, and then sit and type...

No need this week. I have an image burned in my mind. A very VERY powerful image.

At a youngish (13?) age i was just getting acquainted with the delights of the female anatomy, and somewhere in a magazine (Nat Geographic?) there was a picture of a lass.

It took a long time for me to be able to sleep that night, and it is an image that has stayed with me for many many years.

Actors can portray pleasure, unhappiness and joy.. but there's one look that no-one can fake. Pure un-adulterated terror.

I've searched for that image and found a smaller version of it. I've just found myself - now more mature - wondering what was going through the camera-man's mind... in the un-cropped image of years ago you can see that her right hand is reaching out to him, no doubt pleading for help. Where's her mother when she needs her? In the article that accompanied the picture when I saw it years ago, it pointed out that its her own mother pinning her down.

aussie_news_views.typepad.com/aussie_news_views/images/fmggirl_1.jpg

Female "circumcision" aka Mutilation. So very very wrong, and the sympathy and horror i felt as a child when i saw this picture will stay with me forever.

Why are people such utter assholes?
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Fri 22 Jun 2007, 12:44, Reply)