South African men continue to use women’s ‘nakedness’ to make money and enrich themselves on a daily basis.
This has been a common practice for years where a woman’s nakedness has been seen as a selling point.
‘Sex sells’- is the slogan used in many boardrooms.
Male musicians continue to use half-naked women in their music videos and society in a way has accepted that this is a ‘norm’.
However, the problem arises when a woman uses her ‘nakedness’ to make financial advancements.
Zodwa Wabantu has been hogging headlines since she burst onto the scene with her naked acts.
Her latest offering, a video, where men are seen groping her body has once again garnered vulgar slut-shaming remarks.
The question is why does society fail to accept Zodwa’s hustle, which is using her body.
But when rich marketing executives use half-naked women to sell ice-cream, it is totally acceptable?
It seems like we are still living in a society that has ideas about what a woman should and should not do with her body.
Men continue to be beneficiaries of this unjust system and that is why it is so simple for society to accept it.
When a man uses a woman’s flesh to make money, its A-okay, but how dare a woman do that herself.
Zodwa is defying society’s prescribed notions of propriety and hence she is getting all the backlash.
The narrative of womanhood cannot in this modern era still be determined by men.
For years, men have been allowed to determine what a woman can and cannot do with her body.
Zodwa is trying to change that ill-conceived narrative.
The great Brenda Fassie and Lebo Mathosa were pioneers of using their nakedness to assert their authority while making money.
Zodwa is just doing the same.
The behaviour of the men seen on the video is an issue to be debated separately.
But, for now, Zodwa should never be chastised for using her own body to make financial advancements.
Society must rid itself of ill-conceived notions that seek to police women’s bodies.
