Flash fiction for today--Ah, they said to the young girl--by KMKaung

Flash fiction for today--

Ah, they said to the young girl
your genitals will cause you to feel too much desire
no matter that we were all born and conceived
through a woman's lower parts and a man's penetration.
Let's sew you shut.
And they used a kitchen knife and some thorns and no anesthetic, as they had never heard of such things as germs and thought death and disease were caused by evil spirits.
After they'd sewn her female parts shut with only a small hole left for her menstrual blood every month
they said--
Now--a long neck will make you look more elegant
so let's stretch your neck, one copper coil a year so your neck seems to be longer.
You won't be able to drink without a straw and if your neck itches, too bad, just pass a string in behind the coils and clean your neck that way.  You also won't be able to look down.
They didn't know and maybe they don't know now
it's not the neck that lengthens
it's the chest that is pushed down (proved by National Geographic x-rays) and causes all sorts of health problems.
Then they said, but it's an old Chinese practice, let's bind your feet, and it will hurt when we break your bones, and your broken feet will stink
and you won't be able to walk except with an umbrella
even when it is not raining, and you can never open your umbrella and hold it over your head.
because you need it as a walking stick--

but you know what, we have heard (hearsay posing as "culture") your bound lily feet will tilt your pelvis at an angle
and make it more pleasurable for your husband
if he can cut his way in past the scar tissue, that is--

and now, let's work on your face with plastic surgery
and let's pull two molars to make your cheeks more sunken

and let's put bags of silicone in
so your breasts look like balloons with edges like circular dinner plates

but you still need to starve to be

rail thin.

Male castration was just as bad.

Why don't we just obliterate this thing called

"culture"

and "Culturally-sanctioned"

Why don't we have a Campaign?

KMKaung
8-19-2014