Women cannot justify stupid behaviour in the name of men

In 2014, Nicki Minaj told V magazine that no one would have cared if she had featured men in her reprehensibly raunchy video Anaconda. I loathe this line of reasoning in all accounts. Men are not, and should not be, an excuse for women to do stupid and silly things.

When men drink and behave like teenagers, and end up in trenches, where they wet and soil themselves, they are not asking for competition from women. Yet, that has become the norm. When men behave like mad cows in traffic, women need not ape them to prove a point. When weak men beat their wives, women need not carry machetes and hack their men to prove a point. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the phrase ‘what a man can do, a woman can do better’ was embraced wholeheartedly. Now, what men do badly, women have managed to excel in by doing it in the worst  possible way imaginable.

Nicki claimed that her music and personal brand embodies a feminist message. It strikes me as antithetical. This is not what Abe Lincoln had in mind when he released the slaves. Certainly, not what Rosa Parks had in mind when she refused to stand for that white man in Montgomery almost 60 years ago. And this is not the kind of dream Martin Luther Jnr had 50 years ago.

Nicki is the curse and musical disgrace of our generation. At the age of 31 she claims to be a rapper, looks every inch like an inflated doll, and has an inexplicable huge following out here. If you don’t know her, or never heard of her, be thankful.

The fact that her objectionable video easily topped over  300 million views on YouTube reminds us of the danger of unemployment and idle minds in our midst.

Stupidity knows no gender

These are the people who should be denied internet access for 10 years until they learn to read and watch meaningful stuff online. Nothing by Parks has more than 100,000 views and Luther’s I have a Dream speech, often regarded as the best speech of the 20th century, has varied views from different posts, ranging from just over 150,000 to 6.6 million. And you wonder what is wrong with our society today.

I despise Nicki for deliberately misleading women. As a rule, I don’t engage with any woman who is familiar with the lyrics of any of her songs. Such a woman probably sticks chewing gum underneath restaurant and office furniture. She will out-drink you, cannot hold an intelligent conversation, will have a hideous mulch-coloured weave, and grossly overestimates her beauty. Such women are called ratchets. Some men don’t mind them. Such men are called perverts.

Nicki is a bad example. As men, we treat women as they wish to be treated. If she puts a sluttish front, that is the angle we will pursue. That is why we have names such as ‘wife material’ ‘girlfriend material’, ‘hit and run’ et cetera, as a way of distinguishing the good from the bad.

I urge women, more so those with feminist inclinations, that stupidity knows no gender. A stupid man is not any different from a stupid woman. And there is more to life than buttocks, cleavages and fake hair. Women need to invest in their brains more than their hair if they want respect from men.

 

This ‘sexualised’ way of correcting perceived gender problems in society serves only to ‘ghettoise’ women more. We need more Hillary Clintons, Michele Obamas, Graca Machels, Martha Karuas and Koki Mutungis to serve as examples. Not Verah Sidikas and Nicki Minajs, however big their bottoms are or their following is on social media.

Sadly, many young women want the easy way out. If their buttocks can propel them to fame, that will be it. And the reason? ‘Men like it.’ It is not going to be the same story when you age, sister!

@nyanchwani

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