Following yesterday’s postponement of the presidential polls by INEC, Nigerians have been weighed down by despair, hopelessness and further disillusioned. ”Canada” and ”Australia” became trending hashtags and people took to social media to let out their frustration. Pop star Wizkid didn’t mince words as he wrote on his Instagram story, cursing out APC and PDP and saying they are the same, and urged Nigerians to vote for their preferred candidates.
Vlogger Lolo Temi supported his views on Instagram and went ahead to say that celebrity these days have ”sold” their souls in order to market practically incompetent politicians to Nigerians. So, I guess DMW boss Davido saw this as a sub, who incidentally has been involved with this election season with his #DefendYourVotes hashtag being championed on social media. Davido, like men do when they can’t argue logically or intelligently with a woman, chose to pull out the reliable, effective form of misogyny from their patriarchal reserve: slut-shaming. He called Temi a ”bitch” who sleeps around, attacked her body and said her teeth is yellow. In response, Temi recorded a video of herself on Instagram calling him out for his misogyny and slut-shaming and further illuminating the issue, and yeah she sounded and logical intelligent while at it.
It’s just beyond pathetic that in 2019, men haven’t unlearned the toxic habit of slut-shaming and Davido presents himself as a dangerous example of a man who is anchored in wealth and class, and uses both elite statuses to shut down the views of woman who oppose him. Undoubtedly, Davido is trash on social media in the context of how he converses with people – rude and condescending. He repeatedly likes to remind us of how rich and successful he is when arguing randomly with someone on Twitter. But the fact that he abuses men as he does women are not the same thing. In fact, they shouldn’t be conflated.
I’m bringing this up because I was in a recent debate with a man on Twitter who tried to invalidate Davido’s misogyny by making a counter-point that the artiste abuses men too. This sounds so bitterly familiar, the same lazy trope that men use when women make valid complains about being victims of sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence or other injustices. The reason Davido is able to get away with calling a woman a ”bitch” is because men generally do the same. And whether men are called derogatory names and do anything about it is immaterial. (Ynaija)
