I
am a feminist: That is if we use the basic definition of a feminist being a
person who fights for the fair treatment of girls and women. A man who is a
feminist is not easy to peddle; maybe that’s why my feminism credentials have
been questioned several times. My use of semi-nude images of women on my blog
has also been used as a reason why my feminism credentials are suspect. That
brings me to the crucial question that has prompted me to write this article:
Does the nudity of women that has flooded facebook, twitter, whatsapp and has
been on the modeling ramp for decades contradict the very concept of feminism?
I am a man and I will certainly
enjoy looking at female nudity; that’s a given. But I will not have more than
one woman at any given moment and I will not break a woman’s heart on purpose –
what I call premeditated heartbreak. So does my enjoyment of female nudity
disqualify me as a feminist? Does the fact that the millions of nude female
images online have been put there, willingly, by the women themselves point to
the fact that feminism and nudity are perhaps not related animals or is the
concept of feminism so mixed-up and confused that the treatment of women as sex
objects is done with the consent of the women themselves? I will not try and
speculate as to why women post millions of nude pictures of themselves online,
where they can easily go viral. I will also not pretend that my eyes will not
linger for a bit longer than usual if a woman in a miniskirt passes by or sits
down. Does that disqualify me as a feminist?
I was raised and still dwell in a
very patriarchal environment where the general belief is that women are on
earth to be slaves to men: A woman must get married so that she can cook, wash
and have children for a man. You can also throw in giving ‘good sex’ to the
man: She must not under any circumstance think of herself when it comes to the
sex, thus female orgasms are as rare as a pink donkey. It is mystery though how
women are expected to give ‘good sex’ if they are not enjoying it themselves. I
don’t support that patriarchal nonsense and because of that I will have to
insist that I am a feminist. I believe that women are on earth to live their
lives: They should have their own careers, enjoy sex for the sake of sex if
that’s what they want and they should not be ashamed of being successful and
not be married. To hell with questions like: Are you married? Why not? When are
you going to fix that? All this is clear. But we still come back to the
question of nudity.
Why does a woman with a PhD degree
put on a miniskirt? And are men wrong for enjoying the view. What is meant by
treating women as sex objects? Is it going after a woman for the purposes of
sex only? And what if a woman is also interested in sex only? Does enjoyment of
female nudity condemn us to treating women as sex objects and disqualify the
likes of me as feminists? And the women who happen to ‘enjoy’ or are
‘comfortable’ with their sexuality by putting on miniskirts and posting nude
pictures of themselves online: Where do they stand in the feminism jungle? Is
it a possibility that women have been forced into using their sexuality to
prove their worth by a world that is hostile to them?
I will not conclude this article as
I am in state of confusion as to where female nudity, sex and treating women as
sex objects stand in the feminist maze. And I will have to insist that I am a
feminist even though I use up some bandwidth going through one or two nude
images of women online and of course some occasional porn. Because in spite of
this vice I am prepared to publicly execute a man who rapes a girl or a woman
or dares lays a hand on a girl or a woman. I also happen to think a woman
should not cook, wash…for a man if she does want to. Doesn’t he have hands to
do his own washing?
email: mgcininyoni@gmail.com : twitter : @MgciniNyoni : whattsapp : +263 772 103 564
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