by Faith Ongeziwe Qinga
Picture this Sunday bliss with the girls; a beautiful afternoon, after a weekend of jovial celebrations, be it a birthday or whatever. The girls are in a queue for the last quench before it becomes business, as usual, the next day. The ever-rising sin tax is a problem, but that will be addressed another day…imagine getting labelled “prostitute” for being short of a few rands at the till?
By virtue of wearing a short dress, waiting to buy a pink cider, you’re labelled a prostitute by men. Yes, men! It can only be a man who holds such skewed views…Whilst this male, referring to his gender sounds empathetic so let’s go with a male before the “not all men” brigade comes gazing… Whilst this male continues talking nonsense, a gentleman comes to the “ladies” rescue. Addressing the ladies, as he puts it, politely he assists. Yebo! Another one for the road. What follows is another blog content perhaps…
Now let’s dissect society’s stereotype on wearing a short dress in public. Don’t tell us how to dress! This is my body and I dress however I want. You find it revealing? Tough. It is my body. “revealing” is my advocacy for femininity. This dress code policing is right up there with that gender having an opinion on our hair. “I prefer my woman natural” yehake preference, ndakubetha “my”. Atsho umntu egqunywe yikepusi kephof. Same difference, is it not? The sense of entitlement unlearned men have on female bodies is embarrassing, really.
A woman wearing a weave is not trying to look like the colonizer. We are not all meant to have straight long hair, and that is not what we are doing by wearing wigs. Wearing hair takes absolutely nothing away from a black female body embracing her Afrikanism. Underneath these wigs, we have healthy ‘fros. Wigs are convenient because it’s a wear-and-go. I will not dwell into the time we spend maintaining the natural hair, using strictly organic products, a lot of work!
So each to their own folks. You like your beautiful face with make-up on? beat it. You’re comfortable in your short number? rock it! You find your wig convenient like me? Yinxibe babes.
