Ideally, we are living in a time where awareness about gender equality is at the focal point of almost every debate. We are not short of ideas and institutions that advocate for the leverage of equality among human beings of all nature. In fact, a democratic country like Namibia is never a disgrace to its people especially women and human right remains its first priority. Meanwhile, the issue of feminism is still puzzling inquisitive minds, and we often reject being feminist consciously or unconsciously.  

What a patriarchal society we are living in?  What a cursed male-controlled world we are bodily into? We should have lost our senses by now, by eyeing what the girl child is going through from all corners of the country will kind one to weep tears that could barely stop. She is the casualty of rape, she walks in the valley of stalking and in the shadow of passion killing. Take a deep breath, and meditate on how you view the face of a women in a society of modernity, evaluate the kind of language you practice to define a woman and never forget to think how you delight her with colorful words to cultivate love or affection.

Well, being a feminist require one to practice the doctrine that allocate equal rights to all women, mostly in a patriarchal society that is consciously and unconsciously prone to the circadian oppression of women.  It require one not only to practice the doctrine but one should also be a vibrant activist that liberate and free minds that are still not mindful of what are some of the symptoms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) or behaviours that perpetuate GBV and inequality within our society. 

We should never hastate sharing ideas and wisdom that is liberating our mothers from the zone of cold war that is packed of objectification, subordination, animal imagery, food imagery and all sorts of practices that are merely a disgrace to the value of a women.

Most of us are mindful of the fact that women are being castoff in money making scheme projects just to create very imaginative and seducing environments that does not only attract male counterparts as customers for the products/service being offered but also as hungry lions which are willing to quench their thirst of lust onto the innocent souls that are being used as curtains and flowers to decorate parties, shows and gathering which could be revenue making schemes, this is motivated by the choice of words we use to describe them and the way they (women) present themselves in terms of their dressing codes.

If you have seen a bikini carwash before, take this; would you wish it upon your daughter? “Take it easy”, would you wish it up on your wife? “Take a deep breathe” would you wish it up on your sister? “Wow, what a big insult” not even one of us would like to see our biological mother doing bikini car wash. Well, whose daughter, whose sister, whose mother do we want her to partake or be the subject of a bikini car wash?? We might feel indifferent about this but one of the main detail behind this sort of events is profit making and male eye-pleasuring but most women themselves cannot even feel that this type of events are demeaning them objectifying them. 

 Let’s put this in a practical life example, a show that offer free entrance to fifty ladies that will arrive first, is more likely to make more profit/be full than a show that will offer free entrance to fifty gents (men) because it will accommodate more men who will come and spent money with individuality of pleasuring their eyes over the provoking dressed beings, it could be merely a fact because of the sexist language we use in advertising events of this type, for instance “come in numbers, beautiful chicks will be there!” (This already motivates men to come and be subordinates over women) it is perpetuating inequality in a sense that might breed violence because it is animating women and making them to be seen less positively than men.
Sexist language further fuelled inequality by referring to women in terms of food imagery, which is equally insulting but we are not aware of this factor. Some women would like to be called sweet-pies, chocolates, pumpkins, dishes and all sort of funny words, it makes them smile and feel appreciated or loved.

Literary, these are all food which we take when we are hungry, we can dispose them once we are full or in need of something else, their sweetness only exist when we are chewing them and we hardly eat the same type food for solid-days. So, this is what is critically happening to our mothers, it is heart breaking to look at the previous concept from this perspective but once we stop referring to women as our food we will compact inequality and subordination. 

Let’s us be mindful of the language we use to toward women because once it get assimilated by the younger generation they will understand women by merely denoting connotations that are negative and start projecting them onto the girl child or either take the girl child for granted. Remember we take actions because of words and act according to our understanding of words. 

Women should pay attention to, too much privacy revealing or provoking dressing codes that will cause men to describe them in sex referent manners and we should collaborate to end practices that are demeaning women’s faces and let’s stop manipulating women for profit making. It is damaging their image, causing them to be less valued by their subordinates thus most men still feel it is their duty bound to control women.
 So, as it has always been said by prominent scholars, be a feminist by protecting your women and love your country!