Sunday, June 24, 2012

My thoughts on Women, showing flesh and empowerment


I think something in African feminist scholarship needs to be done about women, especially young ones cherishing their looks, showing of their bodies more than being politically savvy, educated, have a grounded opinionatedness. there is something wrong when women value showing their flesh, nakedness and live for their looks, attractiveness. How does one negotiate the polirisation of the patriarchal silencing of women's bodies versus the human rights discourse of this is my body and i can throw away my dignity and self respect, i am sexy business that is driving me crazy, as a feminist, this is killing me. i see it here in Germany, the US, at home (Malawi), wherever i look. what to do?

Honestly, this issue is worrying me because i fight and believe in women's rights but, i see that the burning of bras, empowerment movement seems to be interpreted to mean i can value sex and showing myself as a sex symbol, becoming a prisoner to make up and dressing, bags, shopperhocalism, than knowing what is on the news, how can i be an engaged citizen. i hear women proudly saying 'ine zandale ayi'(I do not like/do politics) when some of us are fighting day and night for women, whose majority is the poor and kept out of corridors of knowledge, to enter spaces of power. meanwhile those young girls are very scantily clothes, walking past you swaying their hips and salivating on the latest hollywood fashion, spending money of wanna be culture. what does an academic activist do. that kind of dressing plays right into the hands of the religious patriarchs who now order a clamp down on women's dressing, in the name of them enticiing men, which is a new problem now and you end up in the Malawian market issues when i come out blazing defending my right to dress. but, how does one inculcate rights that are deeply imbedded in responsibilities, is my question, which i think the euro-western discource has failed to do miserable and we have a chance to do better

No comments:

Post a Comment