William Shakespeare in his play, As You Like It, made one of his famous speeches, “All the world’s is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
So when strong female characters in movies and TV shows are in sexy tight clothes showing mad cleavage and legs up to high heaven, the reality most times is that they are catering to the male gaze.
Even in real life situations such as Nigeria’s first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan’s weaponized femininity, the entertainment is not lost on political watchers.
The first lady has no overt political power, however, her power via proxy in recent times has continued to amaze many.
Going back in time, her predecessors, late Stella Obasanjo and Hajia Turai Yar’Adua were not known to exert influence in pure political matters. There was no time in history their names came up in party politics except on the sidelines.
Mrs. Jonathan’s tenure has turned out to be a political comedy of errors going by the primaries of the ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Her name plagued most PDP’s members in most states across the country.
In her home state, Rivers, the first lady despite the overwhelming background noise by other governorship aspirants who were against her open supports of Chief Nyesom Wike pushed on undeterred.
At one time, the mainstream media was awash with stories of her estranged relationship with Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson. It was reported that she was backing the Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Matters, Mr. Waripamowei Dudafa against the incumbent for the PDP’s governorship ticket in the state.
Several other reports about how she was slapping PDP’s men in the balls in states also graced front cover of newspapers and magazines.
Some of her female friends wielded her influence in their states. Hajia Bola Shagaya stabbed men with her eyelashes and crushed their throats with her heels in order to impose ACN gubernatorial candidate in the 2011 election, Dele Belgore as PDP’s governorship candidate in Kwara State.
The current crisis rocking the party in the state after the emergence of Senator Simeon Ajibola as its flag-bearer is largely due to the bad blood she bred.
An idea that men are somehow intimidated by winged eyeliner, red lipstick, and stilettos, and that wearing these things make women powerful, weaponized femininity makes women like Dame Jonathan who are fetish about power and fleeting fame act brutally through their husbands, lovers, and sons — people who are granted power and who are allowed to be openly powerful.
What the first lady and her cheerleaders failed to realize is that high heels, if worn often enough, damage the feet and back.
Rotimi Sulyman is the publisher of OrijoReporter, an online tabloid
