BLACK COCKTALE

I AM often shocked by the expressions: sex worker, commercial sex worker, sex trade worker, call girl, street-walker, etc that describe the practice of prostitution. All these terms conceal the gravity of the activity while bestowing on it a positive tone. We should call a spade a spade and remove all nuances. Prostitution is an act that disrespects a person’s body. Practised by a male or female, it should be condemned. It operates on the principle of objectifying the human body, while disregarding his/her personality.

Women are particularly vulnerable since they are the ones who practise prostitution more. Prostitution contributes to the male-centred objectification of women, increases sexual violence, undermines the objective of sexual equality and it is a form of male domination. It is instrumental to numerous psychological problems. There is no doubt there are neurological defects that could be treated with medication, nevertheless, personal choices are mainly implicated in one’s sexual orientation, prostitute, heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual.

Hindsight should make us question if the woman could have done something else apart from prostituting her sex organ. In the first instant anthropologists make us believe that the patriarchal culture around the world kept the woman in subjection to a degree that she could not have decided on her own to sell her body. The male figure in her life appropriated her body to such an extent that only the man should have the privilege of attaining orgasm. Thus, various traditions were put in place to control her sexuality: genital mutilations of various degrees like excision, circumcision and infibulations. These have been devices to subordinate her sexual desires to the man’s.

However, the woman goes through the excruciating pain of having the orifice opened with a razor to make penetration possible. Awa Thiam, a Guinean female writer, identified these errant cultural groups in her book La parole aux Négresses (The Views of Black Women). This obviously is a preamble to emphasise the lopsidedness in gender relations. In my opinion, this disparity in sexual relations has been responsible for the attitude of some men towards women.

The pimps or madams, who engage in sexual slavery by trafficking young girls abroad, hoodwink them with the pretext of fixing them up in well paying jobs. They actually perpetrate the culture that holds out that women should just be sexual objects servicing men. It does not seem that these girls knew the fate that awaited them. May be some knew and made independent decision to engage in the commercialisation of their bodies. Many have defended this venture as caused by extreme poverty, lack of opportunity, or psychological causes of past trauma due to child abuse, drug addiction etc. If it appeared an easy job, the attendant dangers should actually teach our young girls lifelong lessons on self-preservation.

The health danger of HIV/AIDS and STDs is high on the list of issues that prostitutes face. Call-girls have been murdered by their clients in hotel rooms and elsewhere. Countless numbers are killed leaving no identity that can be traced to possible relations. In Nigeria, people are killed for the flimsiest reasons, like a couple who vengefully killed their neighbour’s toddler in a scuffle. Ritual killers are permanently on the prowl. The craze for fortune has reached alarming dimensions as kidnappers defy the traditions of respecting old age by holding octogenarians to ransom. Fundamental to prostitution is the unbridled desire for money.

Lack of money has been responsible for avoidable disasters. Whole families have been wiped out because they sold petrol in tanks and jerry cans in order to make ends meet. It is even very pathetic that children are turned into the streets by parents who cannot afford to feed them. Children hawkers have been crushed by trailers. The accumulation of social problems that have become so much a part of us has left most of us insensitive. It is as if we are comfortable living with them and we make little effort to address them. Can our girls refrain from prostituting their bodies?

Our  social values seem to place premium on sex. Hence trading in it does not raise questions about its moral significance. Our newspapers and media organisations project pictures of half naked girls, who have become models for the upcoming ones. They highlight the sexiness of the supposedly successful artistes and individuals, who have no intention to enhance morality in the society. It cannot be underestimated that the mode of dressing of the younger generation arouses men who cannot dominate their sexual desires.

The cases of gang rapes that are often reported may not be unconnected with this. I am not advocating that women go about in drab clothes; however, it is quite imperative to consider the reason for clothing as being for covering one’s nakedness. When this purpose is discarded, we have nothing short of pornography, an industry which is complicit in sexual violence like rape and sexual harassment. It eroticises the humiliation and coercion of women and reinforces cultural attitudes that objectify women and enhance sexism and inequality. This misdemeanour is further compounded by youthful fantasy whetted by foreign films and cultural practices, which have become the norm and actually determine social acceptability. In a quest to satisfy this desire, our young girls opt for prostitution in order to have the required money. The high rates of unemployment and prevalent poverty have not helped matters.

Did this state of moral decadence dropped on us from nowhere?  No. Parents, guardians and significant persons in the lives of our youths have been responsible for the leeway that has created this socio-cultural disorder. Permissiveness quietly crept into the fabric of our moral lives and is getting out of hand. This tendency is not only reflected in the issue of prostitution, but in every area of our lives. We should return to the basics and ask ourselves what we want to achieve as a nation and work out modalities for accomplishing it. Our understanding of democracy has made everything permissible. A cultural reorientation may make us better predisposed to respecting human rights, helping one another, allowing the rule of law and making a personal choice to do what is good. Not to sound a religious nut would mean repudiating the position of majority of Nigerians who are adherents of the most crowd-pulling religions of the world, Christianity and Islam.

If we truly believe God, let His love determine all we do, even the prostitute will not destroy society, lives and homes, including himself or herself, if we all practise this kind of selfless love.

In addition, we will not turn a blind eye to the poor, needy and helpless. Our utmost desire will be to preserve humanity and solve human problems.

• Siwoku-Awi (Mrs.) is a lecturer at the Nigeria French Language Village, Badagry.