OVER EXPOSURE AND NOLLYWOOD MARRIAGE CRASHES- BULL’S EYE PETE, FREEZE

I took time to listen to Daddy Freeze and I could not agree any less that it is indeed over exposure that has made Nollywood marriages ‘endangered species’. Though, I understand that indeed it is not every woman that gets swayed by affluence and monetary flattery. Daddy Freeze actually hit a salient point that is connected to the reason for the high level of dysfunctional states of marriages in our society today, especially in the Nigerian movie industry.

As I watched the live podcast by Daddy Freeze, it all started adding up. I was like, “okay this is why Nollywood movies stars get divorced and separated from their partners more often.” Even those thespians who you would have thought held decent and more reserved family lives. It was like the key that turned the whole maze into a straight path.

It started making sense to me. This exposure, nay, over exposure of Nollywood Actresses makes it difficult for a woman to think straight and many have fallen victim to the snare from the high and mighty of the society.

When I started seeing our hitherto decent Chioma Chukwuka making videos where she was acting like a bitch in the name of ‘chopping life’ alongside some other female celebrities, I knew her marriage would not last. I also felt a high degree of disappointment as she was supposed to be one of the last of the Mohicans.

There is no gainsaying the fact that over exposure of women has never augured well with the society. This is given the fact that women are wired differently and most times function better from the background.

I would not want to delve into the explicit analogies given by Daddy Freeze of what abuses and depravities married women are exposed to, albeit, subjected to as practicing thespians. Rather, to support the postulation that it is indeed abnormal for women to be over exposed, let us take a look at two cultures that have had groomed the best of women and their position on the place of the woman. The Islamic culture and the Igbo culture.

In the Islamic culture, the woman is treated with utmost respect and is required to treat herself with utmost respect too. She is required to dress with every sense of decency, and not to move about out of the house without any cogent reason. And even when they go out, they are to cover their bodies very well and to don the hijab. The woman in Islamic is treated like the Queen Bee. She is provided for by the menfolk most times while she just focuses on making babies and self improvement.

In Igbo culture, the women were also treated similarly. They had their own say and yet, they were made to influence from the background and not to be over exposed. This did not in anyway diminish their worth in the society as all women were allowed to attain any level of status including the status of a man who can marry other women under certain conditions.

Fast forward to the recent call for the emancipation of the women by western culture. This has been a reverse psychology kind of fad which, instead of empowering the women, exposed them to an unprecedented level of abuse and sexual exploitation. The so called free women are the most passed around by the menfolks. They are the most sexually abused. The western culture has, under the guise of liberating the women, over exposed them to the extent that they are nothing more than sex toys in our society today. They are made to dress and act in ways that stir the sexual urge of every man they come across and thereby relegating their true humanity, intelligence and creativity to the background.

A look at the history of Hollywood will show a plethora of sexual exploitation cases with the womenfolk as the victim most of the time. Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby are chief among the high profile Hollywood stakeholders who were accused of serial sexual exploitation and abuse of women in Hollywood. They were alleged to have used their almost limitless powers and wealth to get many women to do their sexual bidding. Imagine if such women were your wives. What kind of husband would that make you?

So, posing over exposure of Nollywood female actors as the reason for the crumble of their marriages is a no brainer. The lifestyle and easy access these women have with the high and mighty and the fact that they have been programmed to dress seductively as part of stock in trade of being female celebrities, thanks to the western example, makes it simply impossible for these women to remain unscathed for long in the industry.

This is not to say that women should no longer act in films if they wish to marry or stay in marriage. And this is what some upcoming female thespians are doing these days…those who have not lost their souls completely, that is. What I recommend is a situation whereby more decorum is given to the lifestyle associated with stardom.

I strongly believe that if the Nigerian movie industry will made decent dressing, decent language and decent lifestyle the standard for stardom, we would have broken our society free from the curse of western civilisation and we would be on our way to rescuing our home front and restoring the dignity of womanhood in our society. May God help us.

By O’star Eze