229
Sierra Leone’s first lady refuses to condemn female genital mutilation without ‘reliable data’ on harms
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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Ear piercings harm women's physical and emotional health?
Sometimes, yes. When they're done without consent or emotionally pressured or coerced upon children too young to be capable of informed consent, yes. Consenting adults, fine. Consenting teens or even tweens, fine. Teen who feels socially pressured? No. 5-year-old? No. This is not something that affects your future. This is not something that has some medical or preventive purpose.
Ear piercings may only cause minor pain and have minor infection risks and may not be a serious harm in the great scheme of things, but they set a horrible precedent for consent and bodily autonomy and I find it unconscionable that anyone can defend that unless they are just expressing how normalized it is because of the way it happened to them too. Beauty standards for women are oppressive things that even women tend to unwittingly enforce on each other, and it starts during childhood. It's not good, it's not healthy. It's sick, and it's malicious, and we need to stop perpetuating it. Let people have the bodies they are born with and accept them as they are, let them decide if or when they want to change it.
My ears being pierced doesn't harm me physically, but it does remind me that I used to be someone's property and that I could be again. I think "it would look cute" is not a valid reason to violate someone's bodily autonomy.