Kiss 100's Adelle Onyango Speaks Out About The Stripping Of Women By Embassava Touts

Piece by: Uncle Chim Tuna
Lifestyle

Sometimes, the best way to convey a message is to let you get it straight from the horses mouth. This is one of those instances. Let me leave Adelle to speaak her mind on the mindless behaviour displayed by thugs pretending to be Embassava touts:

This is not a debate on fashion or a debate on the definition of decency. Frankly I’d rather a decent mind draped in what society deems “indecent” clothing any day as opposed to those decently dressed thugs we elected.

But I digress. What is the #MyDressMyChoice protest about? It’s about standing up against rape culture. Granted we should have chosen a tag that didn’t lead people to discuss fashion. Rape culture is loosely defined as a set of beliefs that promote gender based violence. It was born when anti-rape activists realized that some forms of rape were deeply rooted in ideologies promoted by cultures across the world. For example, trying to battle marital rape is made difficult by cultures that promote the ideology that once a man has paid for dowry he is entitled to his conjugal rights even when his wife says no. Rape culture has to be tackled first before we can see any decline in rape statistics.

The same rape culture that promotes the ideology that if you don’t like what a woman is wearing it is well within your rights as a man to forcefully undress her. Why we would spend time talking about the nature of what the woman was wearing is beyond me. Or have we given up in reducing the number of rapists that now we try and accommodate them out of fear? Or is it to painful to face the fact that forcefully undressing a woman because you find her indecently dressed or that forcefully undressing a man because you think he’s dirty is an abuse of their rights? Did we hit the stop button as soon as we saw men groping the ladies private parts as they undressed her?

There have been a few men online who have shared sentiments such as “Rape them until they dress decently” and “dress well if you don’t want to be raped”. I wonder if the same ignorant stance can be taken when children, grandparents and men get raped.

So to point the focus on what we define indecent as or to turn the heat on men and push for those sagging to be publicly undressed, is giving rape culture the environment in requires to thrive. And frankly, don’t teach us how to dress, teach them not to rape.