How did we sink to stripping women in the streets?

How have we bred the sort of monsters that can strip a woman in the streets when we come from a fairy tale history of women wearing little more than a piece of cloth to cover your groin area?

Protesters in Nairobi demanding that women be allowed to wear what they like and not be attacked or molested for doing so.

‘You will drive men crazy if you dress like that.’

This common ‘compliment’ smacks of the warning that I once found in, Open Heavens, a daily devotional from a Nigerian pastor. The devotional for the day said that if women ‘loved their neighbour’s (see men) they would not dress in a way that distracted them from perusing the fullness of goodness and instead lead them down the road of destruction.

We bear the burden of the world’s morality and it is quite a load to bear.

The thinking is that men can control the world economy, companies, politics and all other realms that call for logic but the trouser snake is involved, logic is for the weak and the less virile.

When sex comes into play what seems to happen is reminiscent of the Turn Down For What video.

We live in a society where apparently women are the overly emotional and illogical creatures who cannot be trusted with except ensuring that men are not held accountable for any sexually destructive behaviour they engage in.

A list of things men have actively stated they cannot be blamed for as they are women’s fault:

• Staring
• Cheating
• Touching you in the street
• Stripping women in the street
• Rape

This list is by no means exhaustive.

The question is: how have we bred the sort of monsters that can strip a woman in the streets when we come from a fairytale history of women wearing little more than a piece of cloth to cover your groin area? How is it that now that a miniskirt or a tight pair of jeans can suddenly unleash a rabid animal inside men?

‘I hit it.’ ‘Will slide up in it.’ ‘Giving her the D.’ The vagina merely seems to lie in wait

Is it with the rise of ‘civilisation’ has come an irreconcilable coexistence between hyper sexualisation and hyper conservatism?

As Africans we seem to have people ascribed to the ‘close your eyes and think of Jesus/Allah whilst assuming the missionary position’ school of sexual thought. The conceptualisation of sex and sexuality has becoming wildly distorted as it does its deadly dance with religious ideologies and with that the woman’s role in the larger sexual paradigm has become something dangerous and disgusting.

Nkiru Nzegwu’s essay ‘Osunality’ speaks of how the modern day African erotic has been wildly shaped by Christianity and Islam. It argues that African sexual ontology is quite progressive and is a resilient stronghold of female power as she embodies the entire fertility process from arousal to birth. It further argues that moving towards an African ontological framework highlights the sexuality component which recognises sexual fulfilment as a personal and social good which breeds well-adjusted individuals.

As women we have gone from being the heroes of the sex tales to being the villain.

The major religions have understood women as the ‘devils in a red dress’ ready at any moment to collapse the world social order and send us all slipping and sliding into a hedonistic pile of orgies and debauchery.

We are a force that needs to be contained and reined in some men have taken it up themselves to do that.

Religious factions, legislation and other powers telling women what is inappropriate to wear whilst men go shirtless in the streets the minute it is even slightly warm (summer is not always kind to the eyes in Cape Town).

Historically the idea of women being the embodiment of sexual destruction is one based very much in Greek traditions with the word ‘erotic’ being based in the Greek eros. Western phallocentric ideas born by Socrates and their friends emphasised and legitimatised the privilege of male pleasure, needs and desires. This leads to the idea that a woman’s sexuality is for a man.

Not their finest work frankly, they should have stuck to birthing democracy.

The African erotic is based very much in the female and the power of the vagina. Oshun is a West African goddess through whom ‘all life flows and is the epitome of sensuality and sexual pleasure’. She represents female centred life transforming energy that courses through and animates life.

Oshun, like other African fertility goddesses, reinforces and empowers female sexuality without negating male sexuality. Unlike within the major religions it is not a never ending battle characterised by temptation and dominance.

Nzengwu argues that the power of Osunality is a critical force which, whilst being a seat of women’s power, is also vital for ‘[modulating] men’s propensity for aggression’ by acting as a calming force.

Nevertheless the power of the female sexual organs was diminished with the rise of the idea of penetration brought by Western phallocentric ideas.

‘I hit it.’ ‘Will slide up in it.’ ‘Giving her the D.’

In many African traditions we knew about the actual nature of sexuality. Now we have forgotten

The vagina merely seems to lie in wait.

However have you ever thought of the vagina as engulfing the penis? Literally drawing it in and holding it tight until it is ready to let go. Or have you ever considered the fact that once a man comes there is a need to re-load where as a woman can just keep going?

Multiple orgasms are a reality.

The female sexual organ was seen as the holder of life, a gateway from a previous life to this one.

We have gone from being a people who understood the power of the erotic and how that fit into proper interactions between men and women to being a people whose [black] masculinity is synonymous with violence.

In many African traditions we knew about the actual nature of sexuality. We understood the fluidity of gender, we understood the sexual power of the woman and how that complimented rather than conflicted with that of men.

Now we have forgotten and are filled with a madness that brings about sexual rage. Raping and stripping women in the streets because we are so confused about this idea of sex.

We are frankly better than this, on so many levels. It is our lack of self knowledge and understanding that has us wanting to be civilised but instead coming across like planet of the apes.

Yes, I said it.

Apes.

An understanding of the way that sex and the sexual plays out rather than having a hysterical fear of it will ensure that better social interactions. Not only will it diminish the violence, bring about better gender relations in all realms of life but we could also get some very rocking sex in the mix.

Written by: Kagure Mugo