"A woman gives up her body when she has nothing else to give. She gives it up like a man his last copper."
~pg. 584, The Crippled God, Steven Erikson
Now, take a look at that line. Those two sentences. I want to make something clear here. I do not think that the man hates giving up his copper because he is greedy. No, I think he resents giving it up because it is the last thing he controls. He still has something, some piece that can be called worth, can have value placed on it. He has something to fight for. He will defend that copper, because it is all he has left. If he loses that copper, he has lost his will to live. He has had everything else taken from him, except for that copper. He has the power, in that copper, he is God. He alone has the ability to choose what he wants to do with that last coin. He is almighty, all powerful. He will give his life for that coin. Why? It doesn't care, the coin has no emotion, no thoughts, no feelings for the man who holds it. It has no reason or ability to feel anything toward him whatsoever. Yet he will still fight for that cold piece of metal, because it reminds him that he still has worth, he is still someone, he still has some control, because he has that coin.
A woman, therefore, will do anything to keep her body sacred. She only has one, it belongs to her. No-one else. It has worth. Why? Because for centuries mankind has put worth into it. She has that body because countless, and by countless I mean I would not bother trying to count them, generations have invested their lives in eating, fighting, breathing, and so much pain, sorrow, and suffering, in getting her that body. Humanity had to survive a horrible world. To do that, we needed to reproduce. Only a woman had that power. Yes, she needed a man to help, but once he had impregnated her, his job was done. She was now survival incarnate. If she died, another life went with her, just as surely as if I tied two people together and pushed one into a volcano. People complain about why women were not allowed to vote, to fight, to work, to do anything beyond cook, clean and have babies. The reason is simple. We want to live. If humanity is going to continue, we need to have as many females as possible who can have children. If we lose them, it's over. Done. The end.
In our world, even the world we live in today, in this the...what, 21st century, is it? Even now, with science keeping people alive better, longer, healthier, we still place an incredible amount of value on a woman's body. A mind is difficult to get, yes, but compared to a woman willingly surrendering her body? Nothing can compare. Gems and gold in a pile as high as Mount Everest, or 72 women who are willing to give their bodies to you? Some would still choose the stones and metal, it's true. Compare that number to how many would take the women? Insignificant. Meaningless. I believe Earth now holds around 7 billion people, or thereabouts, and even if one billion people chose the gems and gold, there would still be 6 billion who would take the women.
Prostitution, I have heard, is mankind's oldest profession. Selling one's body for something has been around since we first walked this planet. Whether we came from mud or monkeys, it doesn't matter, because everything in the world does it. A female wolf will allow a male to mate with her, and in exchange he will help provide food and shelter and he will teach the cubs to survive. Using one's body to get what one wants? Oldest trick in the book. New dogs don't have to learn new tricks, because the old one still works best. Everyone, even someone who has no interest in women, understands that a woman's body is one of, if not the, best currency in the world.
So what went wrong? Even during the movements for rights for women, if a female walked up to you and offered her body freely, you understood exactly what she was offering. She was giving you something very precious. A woman has nothing more valuable than her body. A man, he has skills in some field. Be in mathematics, trades, science, medicine, soldiering, he still has a skill, and without the proper tools, that skill is useless. Which leaves him with his physical and mental abilities. But those can be damaged, crippled. A woman's body, on the other hand, is sacred. Destroying a woman's body will destroy her. If you mutilate her, her self-worth will plummet, because she will realize that she now has nothing. Sure, she will still have her mind, and whatever tasks she can still do, but she has lost her self-worth. That one last copper she had, is gone. Ruined. Worthless.
Some will argue that with your mind and the Internet, you could still live a good life. Even if your body was so scarred that there was not one piece of clean flesh visible anywhere, you could still do something worthwhile. Would it matter? Can you find be confident in how others think of you, when you cannot be confident in your own body?
So what is wrong with us? Young women and girls are giving their bodies away to boys and men, to the point where people have started to worry. They now have terms for it. A whore isn't someone who gets paid to sleep with guys, it's the girl in the school who sleeps with as many guys as she can. A slut isn't a prostitute either, it's that girl who wears a shirt with so little material, even someone who has needed new glasses for six years can see she isn't wearing a bra. Girls are giving their bodies away, and then they hurt. They find that guy who they think is the one, a guy they love, lust for and care about. So they have sex. Often, the guy leaves. And suddenly the girl has this empty space inside of her soul. She gave what she valued most to him, and he looked it over and then left. He didn't thank her, didn't worship the wonder of how incredible the artwork of her body is.
So girls lose sight of how valuable they are. After the first few guys dumb her after sleeping with her, she figures, what the heck. I'm not valuable, I'm not worth anything, because nobody respects that I am giving them my body, that focal point of my self-esteem and worth. So they sleep with more guys, because they don't care now. Things that have no worth can be tossed around and broken. Used, and abandoned. What do you do with an old computer? You throw it out or recycle it. How do you recycle a body? Give it to someone else, maybe they might have a use for it. Doesn't that sound wrong? It's not slavery, it sounds dirtier than that.
I really hope, that I never do something like that again. I did it once. And now I hate myself for it. Rape? No, rape is bad, but this is beyond the vileness that surrounds rape. When you rape someone, you take them against their will. In this, they offer themselves willingly to you. They offer, you take, and you leave. I do not know the word for this. I'm not sure I want to. I feel bad enough already, I don't need a label added to it.
Ladies, be careful. You have something incredibly valuable and you know it. There is plenty of gold in the world, and we can always make more cars or money, but you only will ever have one body.
Men, boys, gents, greasers and lads, try and keep in mind exactly what she is offering. If you mess it up, you might as well have shot her. You will change her for life, more than an abusive father, more than a rapist, more than being abandoned. You have changed her. If a woman offers you her body, pay attention. If she offers it to you, realize that what you do next will have a bigger impact than World War II.
"Laughter for the moment, but take the stretch of years and it's all heartbreak." pg. 584 The Crippled God, Steven Erikson
If there is someone you know who treats women like trash, do not help them. Tell them what they are doing, explain to them what they have done. Tell them the true worth of a woman and how important she is. Her body is her hope. Her life. Home is where the heart is and a woman's heart is in her body. If she gives that body to someone, she has given them everything.
I hate how this world has turned out. There are good things, yes, I can't deny that. But there is badness, so much ugliness and disgusting things that I am sick. God, whatever and whoever he is, better not be responsible. If he is, I will do my very best to strangle him. This should not happen. This is wrong. These quotations I have put here are from a character who was raised in a house of whores. I can see them applied easily to our world.
So do we live in a house of whores, or horrors?
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