Nigerian Musical Videos And The Objectification of Women -By Ezinwanne Onwuka

It has become abnormal to watch a musical video of a Nigerian artiste without seeing girls in pants and bras shaking their booties, breast-flaunting, sometimes pole strip dancing and digging every form of seductive dance steps with reckless abandon.

Though the degrees may differ, today’s musical lyrics and videos centre around women with particular reference to all the observable features or attributes that make a woman a woman – butts, boobs, waist and so on. To state that women have become objects of inspiration for these young Nigerian artistes’ lyrics wouldn’t be an overstatement.

No doubt, what we see in the Nigerian music industry is a replication of common trends and what obtains in the Western world. However, the fact that, oftentimes, the men are fully clad in the same video where these women wear next to nothing seems to portray that women in the entertainment space are purely seen as sex symbols and this is sad.

These days, caution has been thrown to the wind. It is almost indubitable that artistes and their music video directors prefer to feature women with sumptuous bodies in order to reach a wider audience and gain entry into the mainstream.

To think that female artistes also sexually objectify themselves in their lyrics and videos is worrisome. You see them groping a fully clothed man in three-piece suits or lovely traditional attires, while they, like vile seductresses, are scantily-clad.

I have had conversations regarding this with most people. Surprisingly, some were of the opinion that the artistes are trying to adore, praise and make women prominent. That is to say, they are empowering women.

I really do not know how using vulgar, raunchy and sexually explicit words to talk about women empowers them. I am still figuring out how talking of the woman’s body as a ‘performance site’, an object of attainment, desire and pleasure for men is an eulogy. Probably, using vulgar words to wet men’s appetite to secure the women for his satisfaction and fulfillment makes women prominent as sex toys, and nothing more.

This prevalence of hypersexualised representations of women in popular music videos portray or represent women as persons with no self-worth, dignity and respect. And, of course, the idea that the female body is basically an attractive piece of ornament that nobody can ignore is as a result of loss of value and moral decadence, where the belief that sex sells is rife.

It is true that sex sells, but for a director to make a musical video of an exhibition of the female anatomy with the belief that nudity will hold the audience captive, shows lack of creativity.

Music appeals to the mind and it has the ability to effect change. Societal ills such as corruption, racism, discrimination of women etc. can be fought with good music as evident in songs by musicians like Sony Okosuns, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Lucky Dube etc. Till date, people still identify with their songs and even children can listen and dance to them without parental supervision.

The early 2000’s witnessed female musicians such as Onyeka Onwenu, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, Evi Edna Ogholi, among others. A generation of women who sang with their bodies fully covered, lyrics addressing the ills in the society and made an evergreen impression in the minds of many.

Even recent artistes such as 2Baba, Timi Dakolo, Teni and a few others have shown that you can carve a niche for yourself without following the crowd.

Ezinwanne Onwuka, Cross River State.
ezinwanne.dominion@gmail.com
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