Because I could have sworn that formed the context of the scene on the river rounding the hippos...pretty cool that Ford brought it up, and cooler still that Gardner's character wanted to look it in the face for what it was, and not just bat it away...
How strange that I read your post just seconds before the scene came on the screen. You are absolutely right, that was the dialog. Good catch on your part. Imagine this kind of discussion in the 1950s, and imagine even further the topic being discussed in a John Ford film.
Unfortunately, men and women are the same species, but ultimately, somehow, they are quite different; even subspecies are more similar.
I think that if and when men became more powerful in these societies (and don't forget, a lot of older women perform the task,) they were intent on making sure their offspring was indisputably theirs. Ego, power, property rights, who knows. I'm sure emotion played into it. Ironically, probably the reverse of the 'rich' man/woman who wants to be loved for themselves.
But obviously, this was not the way to do things and a beyond horrendous method of ensuring fidelity. I'd bet some women in those cultures set about infidelity, if they were prepared to be turned out in the street or die horribly, for the very reason they were mutilated. To defiantly have a choice, even if it brought them no pleasure.
Some cultures prefer the woman dry (sorry) more friction that way for the man.
I don't know what to say about all this. I was not there at the beginning. Perhaps this their again, awful, solution to unwed or out of wedlock relations that would result in extra babies in arid, awful times.
But women don't always take lovers for the act of love. Men don't understand that. Until they learn, there is that saying, "when the wife sins, the husband is never innocent."
Linda Nordley/Grace Kelly: You were saying about this device for guaranteed fidelity... Why wouldn't it pass in the civilized world?
Victor Marswell/Clark Gable: Primarily because you women would probably vote it down.
Grace Kelly: But why?
Clark Gable: Because it's a means whereby a woman is rendered incapable of being unfaithful.
Grace Kelly: I think I understand.
Clark Gable: Sorry to be so blunt about it.
Grace Kelly: No. It was my denseness. I should have realized.
Eloise "Honey bear" Kelly/Ava Gardner: Brother, I can take your cook's tour around the zoo, but when we get on this mental striptease and hide behind Louisa May Alcott I want a powder.
I am a bit late in replying to this, but I just happened to notice today when I was on Wikipedia, that their "today's featured article" was about Female Genital Mutilation, and it reminded me of this thread.
Anyway, this Wiki article gives a pretty thorough discussion of the topic of Female Genital Mutilation:
Not the most pleasant topic - can even make you squeamish just reading it, to be sure - but there you are...
And here's me just finishing lunch.
Certainly quite a comprehensive summation of the practice and the fact that it 's still widely occurring is cause for a high degree of concern IMO.🐭
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