Exposing the lie

For the past 50 years or more our culture has been dominated by a lie that can be encapsulated by “between a woman and her doctor.”

This phrase is a subset of a bigger “right to privacy” ethos in law and medical ethics which has led to a wide range of repercussions.

But what if there was no privacy in the discussion and what if the medical decision was made by aesthetic consensus rather than some other more anchoring standard of care?

I am referring to two recent studies that involved asking medical students (of both genders) to view and rate women’s chests.

Why was this necessary? Ostensibly for plastic surgery.

Ladies, please be advised, when people start photographing, rating, and categorizing your briskets, you may need to ask yourself whether those people are

Healers or pit masters.

More

I told you

This was a two-part answer

Ironically framed

By the disembodied voice 

Selling cars in the next room

It’s like calling

A cathedral 

A room with four walls

And a ceiling

Huh…

I think as I finish

Stuffing variegated laundry

Into the high efficiency machine

That is true

You my darling 

Are no mere room

With four walls and a ceiling 

You are a cathedral 

And should be treated as such

Tear down this temple

And I will raise it again in three 

Days

He said

Evoking all

The foundations in the womb

Baby pictures and toothy grins

Girls whose smiles light up the room

Do not be content to be

Measured the way a man will

Span an ordinary room

Know instead 

It takes a lifetime and a fortune

To raise the extraordinary 

Cathedral

Flying buttresses

Stained glass windows

Columns and impossible

Arches

All to the altar

Rising incense

Gaze of the Infinite

God

Flowers in her hair

nostalgia is no good 

When the pretty back flip you 

Executed clean off the kicker

Is called a tantrum

And the suit this party

Requires

Will not cover

The girl who was twelve yesterday

Six a minute ago

Now at least 18

Still not old enough for legal margaritas

Which was always just another name for daisies

Can you see

The pretty, young girls

All in a row?

Tutus and princess tiaras/

Flowers in her hair