BY RICHARD ODU
Let me warn that this comment is a no-holds-barred one and has not considered it necessary to be euphemistic with words, in the manner of p**sy and the rest.
When Sharon Ogechi Okoroafor posted her pussy talk gleefully on the social media, using Tik Tok, she hadn’t the inkling that the whole world was her audience. She thought she was only addressing her colleagues in the little premises of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri, in Imo State. Once the video went viral, and viewers began to react, she realized that she may have burnt her fingers. The backlash was overwhelming.
Suddenly, she had a case that threatened to pull her entire life down.The offending word in the video she posted was “pussy”, not written but spoken. By the way, the word, in the past, simply sent us thinking about the harmless little, gently but agile domestic animal in the cat family that crawls and miaows affectionately around its human owner in sitting rooms. That it was turned to an irreverent and indecorous slang for a lady’s private part is an evolution which deeply religious people would refer to as an end-time development.
Seriously, the sex revolution that permits abhorrent comments surrounding sex, where they are no longer heavy to drop off the mouth of latter-day boys and girls, is real. Time was when people were shy to use certain words because they would be hushed by elders. It is rather becoming commonplace in this day and age to bandy such words without blinking the eyelids, as if it was a sign of boldness and bravery. Our ears are often assaulted by the obscene words that sometimes ooze from music boxes unapologetically.
Toddlers follow and innocently sing the words, not knowing their connotations. We watch comedians use the inappropriate words without reservations and we laugh over it.That is the unfolding society of ours. And that is the trend Sharon and many of her kind appear to be following, feeling that it is nothing, means nothing, a way of life, and the “digital” road to follow, away from the “analogue” parents that read meanings into meaningless issues.Sharon’s case is benign when it is compared to the raw words some of them in her generation post in the social media for all to see. She showed remorse. Others might not care to.
The tricky side of the affair, however, was that the reputation of the high flying polytechnic was at stake. And the job of some staff could be on the line should the authorities decide to dig deeper into that statement, that she thanked her God and her pussy for passing her examinations successfully.The very good looking lady who is capable of stunning any virile man has come out with a defence that she wanted to say her popsy, meaning her dad or father, but slipped. That’s another offensive slang. A man of age would not know how to react to when he is referred to as “popsy” by his children, instead of the usual papa or daddy that sounded more affectionate than popsy. Even the local language of “Nna m” (Igbo) or “Baba mi” (Yoruba), or “Ete mi” (Efik) and the rest of them sound more respectful and dignifying than the casual and derogatory popsy. It might still not mean anything to the present generation, but, most likely, those who invented popsy did not mean to use it in addressing their fathers in their faces or mumsy for their mothers.
Those words were for their consumption in their own circle of friends. Well, watching that video a thousand times would still bring out a resonating and an unmistakable pussy. What is important is that Sharon has shown remorse. Whether others in her class have learnt a lesson from the Sharon episode is something to be determined in the future.In view of the rot in our ivory towers these days where female students often copulate with male lecturers to get marks that push them up in their academic journey, it is hard to believe that the lady was not frank in that video.
There is every temptation in many of the female students to exploit that loophole to scale through. Whether it was her case or not, whether it was a slip of the tongue as she had claimed, had she kept quiet and not posted the careless video, the scandal moving around her would have been averted. That teaches us to apply restraint and think twice before pushing any comment or video into the Internet. The call for an investigation that could spiral into further disclosures affecting otherwise decent members of the polytechnic would not have been there in the first place had Sharon thought twice.The safe way to go might be to let sleeping dogs lie. Our society should, however, realize that some unavoidable bad habits of man are better left inside the closet where they belong; never to be exposed for fear that they might bring about odious reputation for those concerned. It might not mean that those who would be in the forefront of hyping such scandals when it concerns other persons are not indulging in it.
It’s only that they have not been caught. Down here in Africa, in the dark days before the dog food began to appear on the shelves of our supermarkets, dogs were fed with excreta. Indeed, a young mother hurries up to buy one that would readily evacuate wastes from her children as pampers were not in vogue then. That gave rise to the saying that dogs eat excreta, but no one ever gets to know as their teeth are usually clean. Only the ones that carry the stuff on their whiskers are chased out of human presence. Could it be that Sharon, inadvertently, stuck out her whiskers filled with the unhealthy stuff, proverbially speaking, having been lost in the euphoria of freedom from the hectic academic environment?The lesson we learn from here is that the Internet is a double-edged sword in the sense that it makes or mars our reputation, depending on the kind of information we put out or the manner of communication that we adopt in our virtual interactions.
On Facebook and WhatsApp ill-tempered people show themselves as they lose their cool at a comment of others in the groups. They use unprintable words for each other, believing that they are acting right, not knowing that others are gradually assessing them by their words. Like Sharon had claimed that it was a slip, there are various genuine but ridiculous slips flying around in the social media. Some social media users come there to expose their ignorance and shallowness. We must watch it. On a Candid Note, we must be careful with the Internet that has the capability to steal our privacy and so expose the many secrets around our lives that tend to damage our reputation. The trouble with this Internet is that so much falsehood circulates within it, such that no one knows exactly what to believe anymore. Caution is the word.
Dr. Odu can be reached through dirimrich2018@gmail.com, or text 08115711108