AJGO
Monday 26th November 2012 10:16pm
London
4,987 posts
An interesting aside to the moral/religious debate is the recent trials in African countries that seem to show that being circumcised can help prevent giving a partner HIV.
It's quite an uncomfortable position for woolly-eyed liberals like me to be in, because it kind of says to men who sleep around that we're helping you out, but then if they're doing that anyway better women don't get HIV, but then why can't money that goes into development in countries where it's- according to scientific funding allocation- the norm to f**k loads of women, be spent on education and just directly helping the women, but then that's assuming that the men are all like that which is stereotyping, but then if it's such a cultural norm that so much money and time has been put into trials to see if this helps prevent the spread of HIV then surely it's reasonable to assume that's very much the cultural norm, but then if we're interfering by saying giving women HIV is wrong are we then going to take it any further and do anything about supporting men and women who are living longer or are we just going 'ta-da, look how clever we are for finding this out' and then leaving people to live painfully longer and still spread HIV (it's not at all a foolproof method) and/or other diseases or infections?
(I don't know what the findings are regarding other sexual transmissions but although things like genital herpes aren't considered generally to be quite so bad, I've nursed people who are in agony trying to walk from one end of a small room to another, and this is in North London, not somewhere where there may be inadequate medical or domestic help, in a culture that seemingly says women are there to be f**ked so let's at least indulge the men so the women might sometimes not get HIV. Actually, I do know what my position on this is; f**k the f**k off, spend the money on schools for children where females get an opportunity in life and males see that females are their equals, and on any scheme that helps women say f**k the f**k off. I'm aghast that we spent so much time and money making it okay for some men to do exactly what they want and maybe, perhaps, hopefully not screw up women's health. If we're going to interfere in another culture at least let's have the courage of our convictions and use those resources for long-term good. No-one provoked me to think this and now I'm fuming. When will the self-torture end?!)
