Opinion: The weaker sex and sexual abuse in our society – By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE
THE sexual act or coitus is an age-long practice that has existed among mankind since the beginning of the world. And, even animals, both the higher animals and the lower ones, indulge in the sexual act for procreation and pleasure. If humans choose to abstain from indulging in coitus, the human race will go into extinction. So, our indulgence in the act of sex is critical to the continuance of the human race on planet earth. But religious and cultural prescriptions regulate and guide people’s sexual behaviour.
In Igbo land, the South-East of Nigeria, for example, an adulterous wife will be thrown out of her matrimonial home while the sexual escapades of her hubby is treated with levity and overlooked. However, now, educated ladies do not have the patience and temperament to continue putting up with the sexual misbehaviour of their hubbies. This is a proof that culture is dynamic and in a flux.
Again, as to the religious codes on sexual practices, the Bible, which Christians read and study, contains sexual laws by which Christians ought to live. The Bible frowns at our committing the sins of adultery, fornication, bestiality, and incest. Today, champions of gay rights in many countries are fighting governments that have criminalised homosexual acts, although homosexual acts and lesbianism are viewed by people as unnatural sexual behaviours based on their religious beliefs.
In addition to this, some men of the cloth, who ought to live good and exemplary lives, were found guilty of committing sexual misdemeanours. We read newspaper reports about Catholic priests who were pederasts and pedophiles until the bubble burst. In Nigeria, a Pentecostal pastor has been in the eyes of the storm for allegedly assaulting a musician’s wife sexually in the past. Daily, sordid tales about the sexual misconducts of men of the cloth come to the open. In most cases of sexual abuse, women are portrayed as the weaker sex and vulnerable people, who are sexually exploited by the domineering sex predators (men).
And the feminists are ready with clubs to verbally clubber any man alleged to have sexually abused a lady without waiting to hear the man’s version of story. But the question is this: are women the weaker sexes, who are vulnerable? It is a well-known fact that a great majority of women are gold diggers and schemers who lure men into the sexual trap in order that they (women) can achieve their goals. Aren’t we aware of the term called “bottom power”? In order to achieve their goals, most women deploy their sexual assets and wares in discombobulating men and have them under their thumbs. For example, in Nollywood, it is believed that many Nigerian star actresses have achieved stardom through the instrumentality of the casting couch.
They exchange sex freely for a part or role in a film. And in some catholic churches in Nigeria, barely clad voluptuous middle-aged mothers do take tasty meals to Reverend Fathers before the start of morning mass in order to seduce them. In government offices, female workers, who are desperadoes, offer their bodies to their superiors in offices for monetary gratification and to guarantee their speedy rise to the top cadre in their offices. In commercial banks, the female marketers, who must meet the targets given to them, are alleged to be marketing themselves through sexual relationships with moneybag business men.
In acts of reciprocity, the moneybags would open accounts in banks where the marketers work. This is how female marketers working in commercial banks secure their jobs. On campuses, temptresses (students), who are keen on bringing about the ruination of lecherous lecturers, are on the prowl. Most of these way-ward female students have parents who circumvented rules and cut corners to secure university admissions for those female students to study courses, such as law, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, and so on. But being mentally and morally unprepared to withstand the academic rigours on campuses, they do seek ways to achieve their academic goals rather than be disgraced.
And exchanging sex for grades is one of the ways they use to realize their educational goals. These temptresses-female students are emboldened to proposition male lecturers having been socialized into the vile culture of immorality and corruption by their parents. Didn’t their parents compromise those charged with university admissions with inducements so that their wards gained admissions into universities for academic programmes? However, on campuses, there are lechers who are university teachers.
They perceive female students as games that must be cornered and bedded. The lecherous lecturers will keep on importuning female students even when those female students brandish their wedding bands to ward them off. Those lecturers think less about the sanctity and sacredness of marriage provided that they have their ways regarding bedding their married female students.
Consequently, lately, some university lecturers had been punished for committing sexual crimes. Thankfully, laws had been made which can be invoked to punish erring randy university lecturers. It should be noted that the sexual abuse of female university students by their male teachers imperils the culture of scholarship in our tertiary institutions. It is one of the reasons why products of our tertiary institutions are found wanting both in character and learning. It should be noted that sexual harassment pervades all social strata in Nigeria; and it is not restricted to only schools.
And, most times, ladies are the people who proposition male lecturers in our universities. And, in offices, ambitious ladies make sexual advances to their male superiors to achieve their goals. When their sexual overtures are turned down, they’ll concoct lies to besmirch the reputation of those men. But a man, who is unable to rein in his sexual urge should be punished based on the law. Punch
