If your vagina could talk what would it say?
You realize you men out there, that this question is not directed to you, but to all my mothers, sisters and female human beings. The Vagina Warriors have an agenda; to show women and men alike that there is an issue here and as long as it is not discussed they are going to come right out and ask if the vagina had a mouth what would you hear it say? To be a bit precise these are called The Vagina Monologues.
If you did not attend a function by the Young Women’s Leadership Initiative (YOWLI) that was themed reclaiming our bodies, demystifying sex and sexuality, let me then tell you it was about dissecting issues relating to young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Yes, you read right; this is not from foreign lands but stories of young Zimbabwean women in our communities subjected to a whole lot of different experiences. I was shocked at what other people think and feel about sex. From the monologues that were there, issues ranged from having sex without using condoms to shoving some liquids down your privates so that you are relatively tight for him.
After that function I read somewhere that these mentalities are the ones causing HIV and AIDS to be on the rise in Southern Africa – that is creepy and scary. The article said that if a woman shoves ice into her vagina she is bound to experience pain and bruising, making her body vulnerable to a lot of infections.
African as I am there is a lot of things that I would have loved to say about this whole subject but my culture prevents it. I can only encourage you to go to these functions and get enlightened. Who knows maybe we are the generation to kill these mentalities and restore our bodies, male and female to God’s original intent. To be adored, cherished and treated fearfully and wonderfully just the way we were made.
Thursday, May 27th 2010 at 8:52 am
The 21st century has been characterised as the age of going global, new thinking on human rights and economic advancement. You can never preclude the stride of putting in place woman ‘s rights and their emancipation from culutaral inclininations to the formal labour economy on same status with man. Sexuality now from a grandiose stand point of equality and freedom achievemnet frees women from sexual slavery, what matters more is providing same levereage in terms of opportunity in economic, political and social life. It has been argued that from a question, why do women leave high level science and engineering positions at early stages of their careers than male counterparts or rather why do women represent a less percentage of proportin in position of influence. The most probable answer has to do with no single confinement of evidence findings to support such a finding a rather a new development in reveals that more women are becoming more involved in male dominated positions of influence because of the rise of equal opportunity in educcation and training instituions of high technical jobs.
Thursday, May 27th 2010 at 11:51 am
Hey Zah, thanks for posting this. Quite thought-provoking. It says a lot about how women have no power over their bodies, how the little they have they are prepared to use to destroy and main their most precious and delicate organs in some misguided endeavor to ensure that they pleasure they male partners.
It is hard to defeat an enemy when the enemy is yourself… socialization is the most powerful mental captivity; ensuring that women internalize notions of subservience… we are taught that our identity as women or wives is linked to our ability to make (and keep) our men happy; and for many women this is a goal that must be attained by any means necessary.
Indeed, Gloria Steinem was right – the challenge for both men and women is not to learn but to “un-learn”.