(photo: Miss Namibia finalists: Namibian Sun, 2011)
WHAT FACTS?
(A reply to a very slanderous blog that defames Namibian Women, by: Dave Mbassi / Masterful Judgement)
Last night, Twitter brought this little nugget to my attention. If you have not already, please take a moment to read it now, and find me here.
There are many ways an essay titled 6 Facts About Namibian Women could be interesting, educational, and even humorous. You could talk about local customs, the actions of women's groups, and the like. If you were set on portraying a negative reality, you could even talk about the hurdles women face in Namibian society. You could go in any one of a dozen directions while actually discussing actual facts.
But no. The author does nothing more than provide us with an insider's look at misogyny. He certainly is entitled to his opinion. That the essay was posted is fortunate, actually. As long as belief is held internally, safe within the mind of the believer, it cannot be assailed. Once aired, though, belief and opinion can and should be weighed, judged and evaluated against reality and what is agreed to be the societal ideal. In the interest of expediency, I will use his own headings and point out some of the flaws I perceive in each section.
Namibian Women Have No Values
We begin strongly as the author commits the classic error of keeping terms defined as vaguely as possible. Values? I have to assume here he is referring to some sort of moral code, and Namibian women's supposed lack of ability to consistently follow one. He concludes without so much as a premise that any Namibian woman claiming to have a moral compass is a liar because when the situation calls for it, she will no longer be "decent" (another undefined term).
I suspect the problem here, even ignoring the very real fact that humans are a jumble of cognitive dissonance and paradox, is that the women the author observed (if any) don't share his "values", such as they may be, or rather the "values" he believes they ought to have. In parallel, I am anxious to know what led him to believe the Facebook updates of high school kids hold much sway with Namibian women.
Namibian Girls Like Sex
*Gasp* What? People with genitalia dare enjoy sexual stimulation? This is outrageous! Next thing you know, the human race will NOT go extinct! STOP THIS MADNESS AT ONCE!!
Once again, Facebook seems to be the author's primary source of... yeah, let's say "data". Maybe he should look outside social media, but this paragraph suggests he may be suffering from confirmation bias.
At this point I wonder whether this is not about one woman in particular, but a quick glance at the titles listed in his sidebar disabuses me of that notion. Additionally, this section smells strangely of projection. To illustrate, let us allow ourselves, just for a moment, to think stereotypically (yes, like the author, with the difference that we will try to be honest about it). Now answer me this: upon reading the words "They don’t believe in stable family life, it’s all about fun and having sex with so and so," which gender comes most readily to mind?
They Are All Drunkards
Another thing the author believes women should not do: drink alcohol. Because of course. For some reason, he shoehorns sex into this section again, and accuses any self-professed non-drinking woman to be a liar. As far as arguments from incredulity go, this one is pretty bad. How do you go about proving "She drinks when nobody is looking"? You don't. All you have to do is not believe it possible, plug your ears and sing out loud.
Namibian Women Have Kids By 16
Yes. On their own. Good ol' parthenogenesis. Wait... no, the author mentions "multiple fathers", so it is likely he knows where babies come from.. I would be very interested in knowing the source of his statistics if the likelihood were not that they result from rectal extraction. I particularly like the part where he attempts to pull the women who don't conform to his model into it anyway by accusing them of using protection (how dare they!) during the one night stands they are definitely having, presumably with mind-controlled men who would otherwise never dream of making a 16-year-old girl pregnant. Poor blokes.
Namibian Women Are Dumb
The author uses this very short section to lament (or gloat?) over the idea that he cannot have an intelligent conversation with a Namibian woman. I am guessing he came to that conclusion after doing the equivalent of looking for a shipyard on a mountaintop, because if people like Mathilda Shiweda, Cindy van Wyk, Tori Namene, Nelao Hamunime, Merja Ileka, Selma Kaulinge, Gwen Lister and many, many more (and those are just the ones I know of) had anything to prove, I suspect they'd dance rhetorical circles around the author's mind. This is anecdotal evidence, true, but it serves to drive the point home: whatever we seek, be it intelligence or something to complain about, we find.
Namibian Women Are Selfish
Can a woman be selfish? Sure. The same way she can be generous, irritating, noble, meek, assertive, cowardly, courageous... basically the full array of adjectives you can attach to a human being.
What the author means is that Namibian women apparently have the horrid tendency to want to settle down with someone nice and clean after years of debauchery, unlike men who would NEVER, after their time of debauchery, resort to posting ads for a 34C virgin yoga practitioner that is submissive and can cook, clean, host and shag like a pro.
I begin to think I may have wasted my time here. This is just one big tantrum at realising that both sides of the gender divide CAN play "dirty" if so inclined.
So why do I care? I am, after all, neither Namibian (though I often wish I were) nor a woman (that's okay). Has the author not received enough attention as it is? Well, the author himself is of little importance. What matters to me is the din that is put "out there" by people like him: inflamatory opinion pieces with no basis in reality pieced together from a tattered web of isolated incidents, personal affront and bias.
That is the noise I attempt to cancel out by bringing what I hope will be seen as a bit of rationality into what is otherwise just noise. Maybe the din will be silenced and actual debate will begin, and we can figure out what mentalities need to remain in the past.
