Seclamations

By KJ Adler

I am an incredibly lazy person. Of the extracurriculars I joined as a freshman, I would consider myself still active in about two and a half of them, this newspaper being the half. Tour guiding, volunteer work, hall council, and even my weak representation as a club member in various school organizations, have all disintegrated, particularly as my traveling time has increased over the years.
Along with clinging to the Bullet  through my contribution in “Sexclamations,” I have participated in “The Vagina Monologues” for the past three years of my college experience, with the intention of acting in it this year as well.
No matter how many times I have been in the show, I still get chills during this one part where two girls read the memoirs of a young girl whose tribe was taken over by a foreign militia. She describes her experiences of genital mutilation, the pain of being raped repeatedly, and how she transformed as a woman from an optimistic youth to a self-loathing, aged creature.
According to World Health Organization between 100 and 140 million women live with the consequences of genital mutilation today. Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM, can range from a number of various operations; Sewing up the vulva so that there is only a small hole left for urination and menstruation; partial to complete removal of the clitoris (about the same as removing the penis, balls and all); pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area without the consent of the female.
And the pain doesn’t just stop from there. The consequences can come up years later with the presence of painful cysts, the inability to birth naturally, UTI’s and repetition of surgeries in order to keep the woman’s special area in check.
Now you may be reading this and thinking “What’s up her butt this week? Where’s the funny article about cat fetishes or the problems with ribbed condoms?”
Well, the truth of the matter is that this week I am disgusted with our privileged society this week. A friend of mine sent me an article on the newfound fad for forty-something women who enjoy providing their husbands with the gift of “revirginization,” or hymen surgery in which the woman gets it stitched back up so that her husband can break it all over again, like they would have as if it were their first time.
The article talks with one woman who decided to get revirginized for her anniversary. The lady who went through this stupid and painful procedure paid $5,000 to get it stitched up all over again. The article (from the New York Times, no less) then proceeds to state that the woman and her husband had an amazing Valentine weekend (yeah, they got married on Valentine’s Day, how original) and they now tell all of their friends to try the surgery out for themselves.
I mean, really? Come on! Losing your virginity is hard enough the first time but to have a needle go down there in order to give a little kink in the bedroom for one and only one night seems not only excessive to me but just down right wasteful.
There are hundreds upon thousands of women out there who feel obligated to go through a similar painful surgery in order to bleed on their wedding nights and maintain their honor as a virgin (the hymen rips for a number of reasons, whether its sex, exercise, or tampon insertion).
Now it’s becoming the hot new thing for older women to put spice in their sex life. Come on ladies! There are so many other paths you can take that don’t involve any form of genital surgery. New positions, romantic getaways, costumes, sex toys; the list goes on and on!
Not to mention the wonder of Kegel exercises, which involve the contraction and relaxation of the pelvic floor in order to strengthen the penis or tighten the vagina muscles to keep the cavity we females have a bit stronger and smaller.
I’m sorry, but there is no way that I can consider a hymen surgery as a way to tell my significant other that I love them. Sure there’s the give and take that every relationship must go through, but I am not about to roll on my back to get stitched up and have not only my virginity taken away again but also a good amount of my hard-earned money. This is why I never trust fads. Or any form of genital surgery.