Ongoing debate on public dressing needs focus

The recent cases of sexual assault on women in Kenya are a serious cause for concern.

Only a tiny minority of Kenyans who have commented with any level of coherence on this matter have supported the stripping and assault of these women ostensibly on account of their mode of dress. A loud minority, but a minority all the same.

Majority of Kenyans have been taken aback and those that have commented on it have condemned it in very strong terms.

That can be viewed as a redeeming feature in the level of progress our society has made from the days when everybody was meant to parrot the opinion of the (often political) elite.

Unfortunately, as the debate has evolved over time, a new device has been introduced to provide those barbaric actions with some cover of legitimacy.

This device has involved the conflation of opinion and resultant action. It is now being argued that people cannot be forced to like how some people dress in public, and therefore, the public has a right to express their revulsion at the mode of dressing of some of its members.

Proponents of this kind of thinking begin by posting an innocuous question such as, “Would you enjoy seeing your (add your favorite female) leaving the house half-naked?”

NEGATIVE RESPONSE

The expected response, of course is that the majority will respond negatively. Once the answers are in, there then comes the clincher, “Why then do you purport to support the right of all women to dress as they like, even if they are half-naked?”

This argument is then used to justify the actions of the barbarians in our midst who have now taken it upon themselves to enforce this dressing code by punishing the women found “guilty” of “poor dressing”. Undressing them in public is, therefore, fair punishment for them, and ought to serve as a lesson for others who might have similar ideas.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it makes anyone who opposes the sexual assault of differently dressed people look like a perverted immoral pimp out to corrupt the morals of our youth.

TROUBLE BEGINS

The assumption is that one cannot hold conservative views on dressing and fail to support the moronic acts by a few men in Nairobi, Mombasa and their environs. And that is where our troubles begin.

It is important for us to realise that it is possible to feel disgusted by something and not have to do anything about it. It is possible to love blue dresses and not have the impulse to undress everyone dressed in red. It is possible to love long dresses and not feel like it is your duty to undress everyone clothed in short dresses and skirts.

Even more importantly, it is necessary to understand that even if you do get those obnoxious impulses, it behooves you as a human being to control them and accept that what you like might not necessarily be the law, and what you dislike might not necessarily be illegal. Acting as if your impulses are the law ought to land you in jail.

Such is life, even for the most perverted morons.

Dr Lukoye Atwoli is Consultant Psychiatrist and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]