THE female body world-wide is now up for vulgar display, for ogling and for sale in the national and international markets. Thanks to the powerful marketing forces behind commercialisation of all items in the universe, the same spirit which has destroyed the notion of sanctity in erstwhile sacred territories. Nowhere is this more evident as in commercials, on TV, in some newspapers, magazines and especially musical videos. The women and commercial forces that push this agenda seem to say that except a woman’s sensuous body is partially or fully revealed in her dressing, except she has exposed her body parts that are sensational, she means nothing in the entertainment industry. (Here I use ‘entertainment industry’ in the widest sense, including private entertainment).
In a sense, this is a return to the old, atavistic portrait of women: beautiful, seductive and brainless, part of the decor of the landscape or the beauty of a home. Of course it is a subtle insult which most of the victims are not aware of. Women as a group have moved beyond this farcical representation of womanhood. But the notion still subsists in the minds of the consumerist publics. Social media, where anything goes, has only made it worse. The practice of ‘report yourself’ is both damaging and constructive. Who censors the ethical code behind a typical self-report? Self censorship is only possible where the innocuous victim is conscious of proper standards, of the deep layers of meaning. How many of the young minds do bother about the deep layers of meanings?
Sadly, the women and the powerful forces behind commercialisation of female anatomy seem to love it so. The slogan, ‘if you got it, flaunt it’ is being carried to ridiculous proportions. The female buttock, particularly, the big one, which is designed by nature for her to sit and expel waste from the body, is now being celebrated in an iconic manner. Some go to the extent of proclaiming one woman as having the ‘sexiest booty’ in the world! Their world is The world, where the periphery is excluded, adjudged to be inconsequential. For instance the well-endowed woman in Bariga or Tivland or Johannesburg is excluded in the sample but included in the final judgement. Some pretty Nigerian girls have even lost their lives trying to enhance that part of the body in some backward hospital in Spain or Portugal. How vain can we be sometimes! Sometimes I ask myself: where are the mothers of this world? A friend once replied that the mothers are part of the movement to publicly deify the private parts of the female Homo sapiens.
One of the oldest professions in the world is said to be prostitution. In other words, commercialisation of the female body part is as old as man on earth. It was an open secret, and the ‘red light’ culture was supposed to hide the identity of the parties involved. So, although it was practised, it was nothing to brag about; a brothel was not a good place to be caught in while sniffing cocaine and passing out between two ladies of the night and getting the attention of the international media. But the modern culture of prostitution is different. Legalised in some countries and controlled in others, the idea is for sex to be bought or sold. As an aside, there are moves currently on to de-criminalize prostitution.
To be sure, we do not refer to the criminal trafficking in body parts perpetrated by some dark-glassed boss or madam in some luxury apartment. We are concerned with how deliberately women flaunt their nakedness to the entire world in the name of fashion. Certainly, this essay is a lone voice crying in the wilderness against lack of respect for the sanctity of the private parts of women. It is true to a large extent that the currents of social thinking have become ‘reductionist’, dismissive of restraint and accommodative of everything as part of the postmodern canvas. The world as we knew it is no more and by the end of the 21st century, we are likely to have a new set of human beings on Planet Earth, who are likely to return to the early state of homo sapiens in dress code and social behaviour.
Once, my mother-in-law came visiting and saw a video of that song ‘This ikebe go put me for trouble o’.
Spontaneously she said in Urhobo: this world is finished; there are no more songs; it is now buttocks that they sing about’. It captured for me the collapse of values and paucity of thinking that goes into what we call modern music. When you watch music videos, all the men are usually well dressed, bodies covered. The women, often more than the men in number, are scantily dressed, almost naked. The star who is the main singer is dressed in designer wears while the ladies, in underpants and flimsy bras crowd him, wriggling their voluptuous bodies in stupendous ecstasy. We are told that this is what sells the video. The big stars of America and Europe lead the way, copied apishly by the impressionable youngsters in Africa and elsewhere around the world.
Part of the commercialisation is captured in the lyrics of their songs. Meaningless gibberish pass for singing with deep sexual undertones; mimicking the act of sex is carried out without respect for viewers’ sensibilities. It is the music of the youth and they go ahead to win prizes! ‘I wanna sex you up’ as a refrain played night and day on our radio stations is utter rubbish. Some of the so-called gospel music artistes are falling into this bind of body part exposure and senseless, seductive wriggling of their midriff. I once witnessed a wedding in a ‘disco church’ where throughout the period we looked away from the ladies on the choir stand. Their short skirts and exposed cleavages embarrassed all the decent men in the hall.
The truth is as long as women allow themselves and their privates to be commercialised, there will be little or no respect for womanhood. The disrespect is sometimes subtle, sometimes innocuous, sometimes between siblings and or lovers, or the young male to the female. Do we need to see Beyonce’s naked thighs for us to appreciate her music? When she did the American anthem during President Obama’s second inauguration, we did not see her body parts, yet we enjoyed her rendition. The message is not in the scanty dressing or the naked female body; the message ought to be in the beautiful lyrics and rhythm of the music as in ‘Hey Jude don’t take it bad/take a sad song and make it better’ Or “I’ve been searching for/ for true love/gonna keep on searching till I find’. That’s what I grew up to know as music! Not such inanities as ‘who let the dog out, who who who?’ or ‘this ikebe go put me for trouble ooo oo ikebe”!
• Prof. Eghagha is of the Department of English, University of Lagos.
