A woman’s power does not reside in her lady parts

It goes by many phrases, this belief that a woman’s lady parts are the primary source of her power.

The general concept is that men and the world at large are at the mercy of the vagina.

That if only women learnt how to harness the power of their vagina, how to use it, then they would be permanently on top of the world.

The vagina worship is not a new concept. It dates back to the 17th century in Ancient Greece.

Back then, the act of a woman lifting up the skirt to expose her genitalia was used as part of exorcism ceremonies to ward off evil spirits.

The traditional African belief is that because a woman gives life, she can also take it away by baring her nakedness.

Such a curse, when cast, is believed to inflict madness, infertility and maybe even death. Society has it that if you know what is good for you, then you must never look at an elderly woman’s nakedness.

NAKEDNESS

You must not give her a reason to want to strip naked. These acts of women stripping naked on purpose in protest are an increasing occurrence and a weapon for female activists.

The most memorable incident in this region was in 2016 when Ugandan academic Dr Stella Nyanzi stripped naked to protest the closing of her office at Makerere University.

While stripping naked in protest doesn’t always yield the desired results, I agree that such protests always carry powerful messages of frustration and bitterness.

When such a protest happens, it makes newspaper headlines because a woman’s naked body is still shrouded in a lot of mystery. Women are powerful beings.

I however refuse to peg a woman’s power and greatness on her lady parts. This belief is untrue and trumpeting it is holding women back.

LOWERING THE BAR

How so? We have placed too much value on a woman’s private parts that it has become what a woman is judged by.

Girls are growing up hearing just how much power they have over men, not because of their intellectual or even physical abilities but because of what is between their legs.

Young women are losing valuable time and energy thinking of yet another trick that they could apply to harness this power they believe they carry so that they can use it to conquer the world.

I believe that we are all barking up the wrong tree. The belief that a woman’s value is in her lady parts is a big fat lie.

I mean, if conquering the world was as easy as a woman learning to use her lady parts, then why have women been the oppressed gender for so many years and yet they are more in number?

Is the vagina an important part of the woman’s body? Absolutely. It is the part of a woman’s body through which she gives life.

BIG PICTURE

It may even be true that women, next to money, make a large part of the source of conflicts that men have amongst each other the world over today.

But to say that a woman’s private parts are the most powerful thing in the world is to belittle women.

It is to take all the things that a woman is and to reduce them to just one body part. The truth is that besides their sexuality and femininity, women have many beautiful gifts and possessions.

Her private parts are not even the most interesting things about her. How many plum jobs require a woman to use her private parts? None.

There are many ways for a woman to gain wealth, to smash the glass ceilings, to make a statement and to be heard without being reduced to just one part of her body.

Telling a woman that she is powerful because she has a vagina is setting her up for disillusionment.

She will let her sexuality control her destiny, and when it fails her, because it will, she will blame her failures on the fact that she is a woman