Because they are women

Today, I saw on twitter images of a young woman stripped naked with chickens and ropes tied around her waist. The story was that she stole the chickens. The incident happened at Nkpor, in Anambra State, Nigeria. In chapter two of my eBook (Speaking from the mind: unconventional thoughts) I discussed the act of stripping a woman alleged to have committed an offence (or a crime) naked. In my eBook I tried to understand why men, in particular, take pleasure in stripping a woman naked in public for allegedly committing a crime. For me the act is a stereotype against women. I ended up with a proposition that somehow helped me to understand the reason behind the act. My proposition centred on the opposite of the usual “why” question, which is “why not”. My argument is that the premise upon which such a stereotype against women is formed is simply “why not” - which is followed by the reason “because they are women”. A lot of men conceive the idea that women are the weaker sex created out of the abundance of men and should be eternally inferior for such a divine gesture - the notion that a woman was created out of a man’s ribs. For me the logic of “why not” appears to be dominant over “why”. My argument is that if you are looking for a reason to do something or justify your actions asking yourself “why” will not be as convincing as asking yourself “why not”. For example, if those men who find pleasure in stripping a woman naked ask themselves why they are doing it they may not be persuaded to carry out the act. So they prefer the easier option which is why can’t they do it and that provides them with all the reasons in the world to do it. This dehumanising act has undertones of a patriarchal society which is nurtured and sustained by a male-dominance mindset. As long as we continue to live in a patriarchal society where men view a woman’s privacy as a privilege to the woman such a dehumanising act will continue to happen. The worst is that the law enforcement system is porous, which is why people who perpetrate such a dehumanising act continue to get away with it.