I said okay, “no problem, what can I do for you?” She asked if we could go to a quiet corner so we could talk better? I said “okay, as long as it’s not far from where I could keep an eye on my kids.” So we walked in and she brought out a magazine, flipped through and pointed at a lady that was almost nude, all in the name of fashion.
She said she wanted to talk to me because she knew that I was familiar with the person in the magazine. I already knew where she was going and started laughing. She got offended and wondered why I found it funny.
She then started to raise her voice, saying that those of us who are role models are supposed to be setting good examples, which was very true, and that she has seen over five pictures of me at different events and I’m always properly dressed and according to her “covered up”, which was also true.
I agreed with her and told her I was laughing because I had seen that particular magazine and already had a conversation about it with my sisters and a few of my good friends. One of my friends actually said, “the beautiful ones are always properly and decently dressed but the ugly, insecure, unintelligent and shapeless ones are the ones who flaunt those worn out, stretch marked, oversized, body parts that should be left covered”.
That was actually the major reason I laughed and by the time I finished, the woman was laughing harder than I was. We then sat by the food court and started chatting. Her worries were very justified because she had a sixteen-year-old daughter who would do anything to become an actress and singer, she has been attending vocal classes, just to show how serious she was. Her mum was rightfully worried because her role models are: Guess who? Those same ladies in the entertainment world who give off wrong signals.
It’s a free world, we all know that, and people have freedom of expression; we don’t have the right to judge or criticize people; one man’s meat is another man’s poison; this is the 21st century; you must belong so that you can be a happening babe; and so on and so forth.
True, but at whose expense? I love Asa’s song titled, Fire on the mountain, especially the part where she sang: Who’s responsible for what we teach our children? Is it the internet or the stars on television? Why, oh why. It’s one of my favorite songs, so forgive me if I use it all the time.
We forget that regardless of civilization, exposure and status, we are still first of all Africans with values, culture etc. Believe it or not, these are the things that amaze the western world, because they don’t have that. They want to know the way we live, how we think, the way we dress, the way we talk, our tradition and culture, the peculiarity of our film-making.
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