Can the media stop prostitution?
Filed under: Family, Friendship, Community, Health & Well Being, I was just thinking, Joking around, Opinion, Analysis, Advice, Relationships, Religion, Social Issues, Spirituality for such a time
Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness-Leviticus 19:29
I don’t think it is news to any Zimbabwean that the crisis that has engulfed our nation has seen a rise in prostitution. Yet the media seems to think it should be news. Time and time again, the pages of the few remaining papers will have some account of these women who feel they have no choice but to sell their bodies. We are told how they are afraid of AIDS, but fear the imminent death from hunger even more. Then, of course, the papers find something else to fill their pages with.
Yes, I am coming down on our media! It is deplorable, this morbid fascination with a social evil and the victims of it that makes little effort to illicit at least our sympathy let alone motivate us to want to do something about it. Interviews with a couple of prostitutes, a generous supply of directions for those who don’t know where they can procure the services of these women and how much it will cost and a statement from a pastor nobody has ever heard of only leaves me wondering what the aim in printing such a story was.
Tell us something we do not know! Like, why should we be bothered? Should we really care that any female other than our mother, wife, sister, daughter etc is a prostitute? The media has never been afraid to challenge our indifference towards other matters before.
Tell us about the men that support this thing. Are they all unable to find sexual partners in other, more wholesome and legal relationships? The case of the disabled man brandishing a wad of notes as the girls battled the desperate need for cash and their own prejudices outside Earlside Hotel comes to mind. (Well, if you must know, I was waiting for a friend who picked the venue out of a phonebook and had no idea what the place was for). That alone is a topic that could fill pages with intelligent debate about whether prostitutes then serve a useful purpose in some cases. (Just to clarify, I sometimes I think I belong to that category of men who do not get partners so easily because of societal stigma attached to dating my kind, but I AM STILL OPPOSED TO PROSTITUTION)
The media has played a role in promoting prostitution. The regurgitation of the Western culture, which values the woman not as a human being but a sex object and ultimately a commodity creates an environment in which prostitution becomes acceptable, even to the victims. Nollywood, a whole genre of African cinema espouses such an attitude, as do some of the Zimbabwean Diaspora newspaper-purpotedly advocating for the progress and freedom of Zimbabweans-have started to feature an imitation of The Sun’s Page 3 girl. And don’t get me started on the so-called Beauty Pageants!
That same media can help put a stop to prostitution in our society. Let’s see some articles about the campaigns underway, let us celebrate those women who have escaped this quagmire and now live better lives. There are many women who have made it in various fields of endeavour without having to sell themselves. Let’s see articles showing the correlation between prostitution and other social ills, and how to accept or condone prostitution will see a proliferation of these.
I’m not going to repeat Obama’s new catchphrase, but paraphrase it; can we?
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masimba you tottally have no idea how much I agree with you especially when it come sto the state of our media. We dont have real news anymore; everything that comes out is partian although they claim its partriotic. Keep on writing brotherman. Its your mandate as well as mine to change our nation through this forum
Well, it’s like P.M. Dawn said “we are the media, more often than not we’ve proved to be the whole encylopaedia”. The internet has offered us a shot at media pluralism, but there are not that many Zimbabweans online and most of the content is irrelevant or even inimical to our values. Still, we must do what we can.
When is the book coming?