Thank You Lord Jesus for a new day, but I beg of You to forgive me- I have committed adultery five times this week alone with as many ladies, out of wedlock.
I can explain! It all started with Linda on Monday at the mall, with Juliet the day after, in my neighbourhood and with Ama, on the day preceding Monday. The other ladies followed in that order till I finally hung my banana back on its tree.
Please don't let your jaw drop (if you're a male). Patiently read on and you will realise that perhaps the number of times you have committed adultery thus sinned today alone far outweighs the number I have stated afore.
God has made it abundantly clear via His holy book in Matthew 5:28 that, "But I say unto you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." You might want to cast the blame on me for lustfully looking at these women and quiet rightly so. But before you do so, I would humbly implore you to join me as I explore the cause of my 'adultery'- indecent dressing by Ghanaian women (ladies') in the twenty-first century.
Hitherto, it was a very common thing to see a Ghanaian woman well dressed in a manner completely depicting and epitomising our true traditional sense of cultural up-bringing. In the 80s and decades preceding that, it is almost a crime for a woman to expose either her breasts' and buttocks' cleavages, thighs or other parts of her body. Only her husband, for obvious reasons, is morally and legitimately entitled to see those parts. If this assertion is to be well sustained, then I must call myself a polygynous husband since I have seen these parts of several women. Sadly however, things are very much different now. Today, and even in the unlikeliest of places, everywhere you pass is lit by ladies fancifully dressed in clothes only God knows the designer brand names they bear. You find them in the markets, schools, streets, parks, and many other public places. I thought the holy grounds were safe and free from such ladies, but little did I know some churches even habour a lot more of them. Hmmm, please Lord, don't descend on us now; give us a little more time!
My years of living on earth coupled with my moral nurturing have given me reason to believe that a woman demonstrates real decency both before God and her fellow humans when she dresses in a way glorifying not only the former but her very God-imaged self. Conversely, it is not surprising to, in these times, find amazingly beautiful women (ladies) exposing nearly all supposed-to-be-hidden parts of their body, from annoyingly dead flat or sagging breasts to artificially firmed up buttocks all in the name of staying abreast with the current fashion trend. Miniskirts are worn in different shapes and sizes with well bleached thighs firmly and conspicuously popping out, making all men, with me including, gape their mouths like drooling bulldogs.
Ladies nowadays see absolutely nothing wrong with walking the streets almost in the nude. The little said about some of my fellow University of Ghana ladies, the better. I wouldn't at all be surprised if they start attending lectures with only G-strings, beads on their waists and brassieres. Haba!
Let me walk you through an ordeal I went through in the hands of a light-skinned lady during a Sociology lecture on 15th March, 2013. You needed to see the treat she gave those two soft melons on her chest: about three-quarters of each was maliciously put on sale for prospective buyers, concealing only the nipples, perhaps for proper use by the next gentleman who falls prey to her game. As if that was not disgusting enough, she shamelessly sandwiched our dear Lord Jesus Christ between those 100-dergrees hot cleavage while gracefully blessing the breasts with her own version of anointing oil. Lord have mercy!
Tell you what, I barely paid attention to or understood what the lecturer taught for the entire session he's been in the class. Honestly, I would not have looked hence her not destructing me but her shiny, well-popped out and wobbling breasts left me with little or no option. Thank God the lecturer didn't throw questions at me- I wouldn't have been able to correctly answer even one. You now see how and why I committed adultery as I mentioned early on? Good! Don't get me wrong, fellas. I am well and truly privy to the freedom of dressing embedded in our constitution. But, however much this freedom must be promoted, I strongly don't think it was written to promote indecent dressing.
Reasons behind these ladies dressing the way they do are not far-fetched as professed by them. Some will simply hold you aback. However much erroneous this may seem, a section of these women assert and strongly hold the view that men are easily moved by what they see. In my own reckoning, inasmuch as this has got some psychological (scientific) backing, it does not entirely and sacrosanctly hold true as far as a man taking the lady in question serious is concerned. They might be right though, but believe you me, that kind of lady is only as good as helping a real man get rid of some God-given slimy milk from his soft stick. And when he's done, will dump her like a disposable coffee cup he will never ever see again.
Another section also believe that irrespective of how old women are, they should look fashionably young in order to compete with the truly younger ladies who unabatedly want to snatch their husbands thus threatening the stability of their marriage. Can you imagine! There's is some appreciable iota of sense in that anyway. But if I may politely ask, does marriage stability hinge only on looks (beauty)? Little or no wonder these days you see women quiet old enough to be our mothers walk by painstakingly but fruitlessly trying to look like sixteen year old girls. Goodness me!
I find it very paradoxical and somewhat intriguing for a lady to dress indecently and yet feverishly pray and hope to land herself a decent man to call hers. No rule could have been any clearer: if you sell a sex symbol of yourself, you will be bought at a price worth just that.
A decently dressed woman not only pleases the Almighty, but also proves to the world that she is indeed decent. Again, she sells herself well to the prospective husbands out there. It is in this vein that I doff my cap off for Amina, my Muslim friend and others like her who dress excellently well. The famous Akan word, 'akata-esia' (read: a decently dressed woman or a woman covering her body) clearly depicts our cultural and moral values which utterly frowns upon dressing that insults our deep and most-cherished sense of pride and dignity.
It is worthy of note that, this phenomenon causes rape and also sexual harassment. This, amongst other reasons, goes to explain why there have been cases of sexual harassments all over the place.
As far as this write-up goes, it is only prudent and imperative that I suggest the way forward in ameliorating, if not totally curbing this problem. Firstly, the religious organisations: churches, mosques must further condemn indecent dressing. Secondly, the media must carefully scrutinise movies and music videos and pictures before putting them out for public consumption. That way, we can stop the Rihana and Beyounce-like (in music videos especially) ways of dressing from reaching our gullible children. Also, parents should monitor and regulate the dress standards of their daughters. More so, there should be, as it were, a conscious mental de-westernisation (dressing especially) by our women, for it pays to emulate western cultures but not the ones that contradict and corrupts our proper ways of doing things.
Let me further reiterate the point that a real man is truly and ultimately (far more) attracted to a woman's intellect rather than her looks. I am not encouraging you (women) to stay out of touch with the current fashion trend. Far from that! I am only humbly asking you to do so responsibly and with the most suitable decorum. I am very much in vogue myself. Come see my wardrobe: pairs of Jordan, Nike and Converse trainers, D&G pair of jeans, Polo V-neck top and so on, are some the designer clothing you would find.
And to the men who think that only their female counterparts have faulted in this regard, they better have a rethink because I'm coming right at them before they know it.
In retrospect, ladies who have and those who as yet, haven't fallen foul of indecent dressing, should copiously bear in mind that there's more to beauty and attraction than just looks so they should please spare us the glaring and disgusting nudity because I don't want to sin anymore. 'Tcheeeewwww' (long squeak)! See you on another matter.
By David Teye Zanyoh (0247-628151) University of Ghana, Legon.
david_mensah87@yahoo.com