Pass Blue had an article on May 5 about “Taking Female Genital Cutting Out of US Shadows.” In the US, 41 states prohibit it. The federal law was held unconstitutional in 2017 because protection of women had no basis in the Constitution so Congress could not make it a national crime. This is one of many reasons why we need the ERA, now the 28th Amendment.
Shivangi Misra from Equality Now makes the point that it is not a religious mandate, but a patriarchal social norm dressed as they often are in shame for women. Allegedly it’s to control women’s sexuality and make them more modest so you won’t stray from your husband. It often causes internal harm, sepsis, difficulty with sex and childbirth and many other health problems. One survivor in South Dakota was cut in a Seventh-Day Adventist community allegedly to cure children of masturbation.
Unicef’s estimates for 2024 of 230 million women worldwide is 15% higher than in 2016. In 2016 in the US, that estimate was 513,000 but considered an underestimate. In Connecticut, approximately 3,000 women were at risk including 1,000 under 18 years of age.
When I worked in Egypt, the women’s group started talking about it one night and every one of them had it done to them and hated it, but most were going to do it to their daughters. I asked why. They said otherwise the daughter would not be marriageable. Those who were opposed said that was a good reason not to do it.
On May 24, 2025, the Independent had an article on “Cyber brothels, AI girlfriends, and VR intimacy: How worried should we be about the sex tech industry.” At a cyber brothel in Europe, for 99 Euros ($114) you can do whatever you want. All the stereotypes about women are magnified in the “doll”, and she doesn’t even talk, though you can hire a voice actress or do an AI chat for extra. For a little more, 4 Euros, you can even get a preheated vagina. The average visitor is a 34-year-old male. The dolls have giant breasts, tiny waists, and pore less skin.
This is a sex doll so who cares? No real woman is being hurt. But real women are being hurt. A woman went undercover for a book and asked them to rip the clothes of the doll; they did. She found the place dark and dingy, and the doll had her labia ripped off presumably by the previous visitor. The brothel owner claims only once in four years was violence done when a doll was slit open by a customer. But in real life, violence to women has an escalating pattern. It starts small and if they get away with it, it keeps on. One boyfriend slapped me; I stabbed him and never saw him again. So it ended for me but I doubt for him.
One in three women in the world is beaten or raped in her lifetime. Is having this realistic “woman” available for men to abuse really a good idea? Is it teaching them the right idea of what a woman is or how she should be treated or what a relationship is? The answer is pretty obvious.
There has already been a rise in men having “relationships” with the dolls and in fact a movie. Some dolls are programmed to respond in a certain way to loneliness to reel a person in. Five clicks and 15 seconds will get you to porn on the internet. The cyber brothel makes abuse normal, commonplace, a part of “relationships” which unfortunately it already is in too many cases.
The Guardian on May 28 had a story about “Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s secret rehabilitative “prisons” for disobedient women.” Remember that Margaret Atwood said every bit of Hand Maids Tale was already true. In Saudi Arabia they can send you to prison (called a “care home) for arguing with your father or husband, being disobedient, having an extra marital affair (the guy does not go), or being absent from home.
Fathers or husbands can abuse their daughters and wives, and the women dare not speak out or they can be sent to this prison. If she gets pregnant by father or brother, she is sent to prison, not the man. Women helping women to flee is a crime just like the Underground Railroad.
From some of those who have gotten out to talk about it, the “re-education” included weekly floggings, forced religious teachings, and no contact with the outside world. The women are called by numbers not names, endure virginity checks and strip searches, and are sedated. Suicide is not unusual. One woman said that every girl grows up knowing about Dar al-Reaya where women can be kept for years. When she was threatened, she escaped the country and lives in exile.
The Telegraph on June 11 had a story about “Women’s ta from period tracking apps ‘being sold at scale’” posing an enormous privacy risk and allowing women to be criminally investigated for having an abortion or miscarriage.
June 16 ABC reported that in Ireland they are excavating a former Catholic church run home for unwed mothers where some 800 babies and children died and were tossed in an underground sewage structure. The ten states in the US with the strictest abortion laws also have the highest infant mortality rate, highest child poverty rate, and the least-affordable health care. Babies born in those states are 6% more likely to die. In the UK it’s 3.8 and in Slovenia, Singapore, and Iceland it’s 1.5%. Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and south Dakota have the highest infant deaths. This is how we show that we value life and love children – by killing them and tossing them in the sewer.
This collection of news items is every day all over the world. Do you wonder why women are angry?
When the religious right wing started using this meme, we laughed, “Well 4 out of 5 ain’t bad.”