Tuesday, May 27, 2014

IMO WOMEN ARE PROMISCUOUS AND OTHER LIES...



The statement 'Imo women are promiscuous' is one of those lies that have been told severally that it begin to seem true and cool to say or use. That one girl/woman is doesn't mean all of them is or that it runs in their blood like some people had suggested. It is just like saying 'yoruba women are party-freaks' when I know of some that would not attend the periodical 'owambe' for a whole year.

This brings to mind other clichès like "Nigerians are 419ners and cyber criminals" "Calabar people are sex freaks" "Benin is the hub of witchcraft in Nigeria" etc

What these lies does is, it takes charge of our perceptions consciously or subconsciously and then forms our judgment of the said people, race or country and when this happens, it affects how these people are being related or interacted with.

Some very quick examples, businesses or transactions that have Nigeria on it or are operated by Nigerians are always suspected to be fraudulent even if they are genuine. Most websites are inaccessible to Nigerians for fear of breaching its security or swindling its users. Each time a Calabar person (a word commonly use to refer to people from Akwa Ibom and Cross-river states in Nigeria) is spotted, it is assumed that he/she would be a pro or love to do it not minding the fact that a good number of them don't even have an inkling for sex. We always hear words like ‘benin witch’ and other stereotypical words that tends to associate Benin city or its people with the practice of witchcraft even when a good number of these people has never had anything to do with such practices.

Back to the statement "Imo women are promiscuous", this has stereotype written all over it because anybody can be; only that people always seem to notice it when an imo person is involved. At one particular time, the statement almost took its toll on me as I joined the bandwagon and the bandwagon effect was almost shaping my perception of all imo people especially the women until I met more of them, got to interact with and even stayed a long while with them.

The statement remains a fallacy of hasty generalization and should best be discontinued so that the younger generation whose minds are very receptive wouldn't have a one sided cum biased mindset about this group of people which would in turn affect the way they relate with or perceive imo people. The long term effect of this stereotype could be a comformation of the affected people to that which they are been identified with. There could also be problems in relationships involving the said people as they sometimes would lack the trust of the person they are in a relationship with because of a belief that they are promiscuous.
Just a few questions to clear the air on this one, is promiscuity hereditary or carried in the gene? If my father and two other friends that happen to be from Anambra supports Barcelona, does it automatically make me a Barca fan? If there are a few headless matchstick in a matchbox, does it mean that all the matchsticks in the box are headless?


Let’s put on our thinking caps and stop these unnecessary stereotypes!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twitter: @victorikeji