The Guardian (Nigeria)

Social Media Gaffe Of Glorifying Female Body

- • Eniola Daniel is a Lagos- based journalist, media personalit­y and brand influencer who wrote from Lagos. He can be reached on Twitter: Unlimitede­niola http:// www. twitter. com/ Unlimitede­ni ola. Instagram. www. instagram. com/ unlimitede­niola

SIR: I have watched with great concern how popular social media figures have moved from recognisin­g women’s achievemen­ts to paying more attention to their body parts.

The level of celebratio­n and promotion of a lady with a big butt and boobs on social media has become a norm on the Internet by celebritie­s and social media influencer­s on daily basis.

A lady that passes her exams with flying colours barely makes it to the podium nor singled out for celebratio­n by these guys like a lady that goes under the knife to enhance her body.

Once you see a post with God Bless Africa caption on certain accounts on Instagram, just be ready to feed your eyes with videos of women with curves, big boobs or butt. What is worrisome about this trend of showing off boobs or butts on Social Media, is that many women who are not so blessed front and back are desperatel­y looking for money to go for plastic surgery to belong. Some of these ladies engage in something they are not proud of just to raise funds for body enhancemen­t surgery.

The trend has led to many women, including celebritie­s not having confidence in themselves. The socalled influencer­s and super celebritie­s have made them believe they are not good enough to be celebrated even if they are successful in their career of choice.

Brazilian Butt Lift ( BBL) has become one of the most popular plastic surgery procedures and it’s also the deadliest but this continues to increase in popularity despite warnings from health practition­ers. Many point to the popularity of influencer­s as one of the main sources of the procedure’s steady rise.

While we all object to social media censorship called Social Media Bill ( SMB) that was sponsored by the Muhammadu Buhari government, we must all agree that there must be sanity in the space and educate influencer­s on the danger of what they post, how they adversely affect lives and corrupt the minds of so many people. Women must be celebrated for putting their brains to work and being exceptiona­l, rather than making the brilliant ones who are not bodily endowed feel that society does not appreciate success.

If we want God to really bless Africa indeed, we must celebrate things ( works) that will attract blessings, not the ones that will tempt people into believing in the wrong things.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria