A Trendy Culture: What is decent?

About two weeks ago in Kenya, protesters took to Nairobi streets over the stripping of women deemed to be indecently dressed. Apparently, some self-righteous men in Kenya have made it their God-given responsibility to publicly strip women who they judge as indecently dressed.

The unfortunate practice had not provoked such outrage until the video of the stripping of a woman at the Embassava Sacco bus stage went viral on social media. Swiftly, hashtag #MyDressMychoice was formed. It was a momentous decision. Many people were galvanized, and it culminated in the protest.

The protesters demanded, among others, that ‘perpetrators of gender based violence’ be given exemplary punishment. One male protestor was disgusted at the behavior of “thugs, hooligans and hoodlums” who engage in the humiliating public stripping of Kenyan women. “We believe that flawed masculinity is what makes someone feel they have a say over what women should wear,” said a livid protester.

But while the indignant protesters were at their condemnation best, those in support of the practice were unrepentant. “We strip them because we want to see what they want to show us,” said a zealous anti-protest campaigner, shamelessly. Needless to say he enjoys seeing “what they want to show” him.

The protest was as appropriate as it was timely. But there were excesses. The protesters claimed that “women have the freedom to dress in whichever way they feel comfortable.” This claim is rather a sweeping generalization. Does it mean dressing in “whichever way” is decent?

As for the men who go on rampage ripping off women’s clothes, they deserve nothing less than a public flogging (at least a hundred times) and an indefinite period of community service. Such backwardness must not be tolerated in 2014!

Predictably, the argument on indecent dressing raged on and on. What caught my interest was the use of culture to both justify and condemn it. An impassioned Psychology lecturer argued that women must dress “culturally correctly.” But an equally emotional woman said that culture permitted such acts. She noted that even in present-day Kenya women in some remote areas dress scantly and go topless.

The argument of the latter reminded me of how some people in Ghana resort to ‘culture’ to justify Neanderthal practices that should be put in the dustbin of history and pushed far out of sight. Thankfully, there are no known cases of women being stripped publicly in Ghana. Yet in Ghana, supporters of the wicked, humiliating, sexual-pleasure-depriving practice of female genital mutilation resort to culture to justify the practice. They refuse to reason with the reasonable people who engage them. They simply close their eyes and minds tightly to the harm they cause. All they see is culture. I pray the law catches up with every perpetrator.

Well, for some people their ancestors did not involve woman in major decision making processes, and that is what they know. That is the culture. The valuable opinions and ideas of women are not sought, and society, in general, losses.

How about people who still believe that no matter the achievement of a woman, the place best suited for her is the kitchen? Such people advise women not to aim ‘too high’ so as to not intimidate their potential suitors. They stress that, culturally, a woman should not be higher in status than her husband. Men are then left with the notion that women who are more successful than than men are‘marital hazards.’ The women equally think that their men ought to be higher than them. The result is that marriages that could have worked are never even contemplated.

Now, there are others who thwart progress by claiming that primitive methods, tools and equipment produce better results. Take the example once given by Pastor Mensa Otabil. He said that those who prefer manually-prepared fufu -which involves processes that expose the eater to the bodily fluids of the cooks, and which produce a little using a great deal of energy-must have a rethink. Their claim that hand-pounded fufu is tastier only stifles innovation. It is an unfortunate refusal to progress from a stressful culture to a more efficient one…

How about burdening one’s kidney with crudely produced herbal medicine? The reason is simple: our ancestors did not have exact measurements yet the herbs worked. What is the reason in seeking approval from the Food and Drugs Authority or Ghana Standards Board? What business do they have to do with things supposed to be purely cultural, even spiritual?

We cannot continue to use culture to commit and condone practices that ought to be discarded. Culture is dynamic, and can also be copied. We must adapt and copy that which constitutes best practices based on reason. And Oh Ghanaians like to copy from the West! But as my lecturer at the University of Ghana, Mrs Borti, would put it: “we must not copy things of the West that have become an albatross around their necks.”