Breast Ironing is pretty straight forward and is what it sounds like. It is the pounding and the massaging of a pubescent girl's breasts, using hard or heated objects, to try to make them stop developing or disappear. And there is one word I have for this practice: unnatural.
The first time I saw a picture of a girl with a wrap around her abnormal and transformed flattened chest, I was instantly disgusted. I felt sad for her and for all of the innocent young girls that this had been happening to. Sadly enough, breast ironing is practiced in all ten regions of Cameroon, and is most prevalent in the West and Central parts of Africa -- in places such as Benin, Chad, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
In 2006, there was a shocking estimate that more than 5,000 Cameroonian girls between the ages of 10 and 82 had been victims of breast ironing, and had undergone gruesome procedures to make their breasts nonexistent. To get a better idea of breast ironing, ways that the tradition can be done, is by using hot tools such as rocks, paddles and even pestles. The reason for the breast flattening is because the mothers of these young girls fear that with once they hit puberty and increasingly start to develop, that they will become targets for rape. Mother's of these young girls want their daughters to appear less attractive to men, in fear that if their daughters do meet a man, they will become pregnant and not complete their education. Now I have two words for that point of thinking: ridiculous and terrifying. I believe that it is messed up that we have come to this point of logic. If this is the kind of world that we are living in, where there are parts of the globe that are practicing body mutilation for the sake of surviving, then I don't know what else to say other than we need to change our way of thinking in our society.
"Having breasts was shameful. My grandmother noticed mine when I was 10. One night, she made me lie down on a bamboo bed by the fire. She pressed on me with a hot wooden spatula and tried to flatten them. Even now, I don't want people to touch my chest." – Jeannette, 28-years-old.
Breast Ironing is extremely dangerous, and has been the cause of breast cysts, breast cancer and has been the culprit in breast feeding issues as well.
In my opinion, it's almost as if women in those parts of the world (in places such as Africa) should feel ashamed and guilty for being a woman and obtaining body parts that they cannot control. A woman should not fear her surroundings and be afraid of being a target of rape because of the way she is built.
It even happens in the Western Hemisphere as well, as women are having to face the double bind in our culture that is, "Men love breasts. Show more. Do this. Do that," but then is ripped on for "revealing too much" and told that having breasts are inappropriate. It's confusing and unfair. It's almost as though there is no in between for women to live their lives on the accounts of their gender. And then we come to this unsettling point in our civilization where we have to more or less hurt our bodies? Let's make instances like these known, make people more aware of them -- or at least, really take them seriously. The fight for body equality is not over. Let's change this up, shall we?
