VJ’s son Mainga in Sex Scandal…’selfies’ land him in big trouble with wife_New Vision_13 April 2015

Name of picture: VJ’s son Mainga in Sex Scandal…’selfies’ land him in big trouble with wife

Name of Publication: New Vision

Date: 13 April 2015

Country:  Zambia

This pictures which were published in the New Vision newspaper is another example of blatant stereotype against women in Zambia.

The pictures, which were in color and on the front page of the newspaper, are about a married man who is dating a single woman. However, the attack is more placed on the woman than the man who by the Zambian culture is the initiator of the affair.

The ideal or belief in the Zambian set up or culture that a man who is the one who propose love to a woman is put aside in a bid to justify the attack on the unmarried young woman.

Going by the headline, the person who is in trouble with his wife is the man, but when one reads the captions of the pictures which is accompanied with the story,  will notice that the woman is called bad names such as “ in bed with concubine Pricilla” and a question is poised that ,  “ who is this woman sir”

They are now calling the woman a prostitute or concubine while calling the man “sir”. This along is enough to show how the media try as much as possible to portray women as bad people who are not supposed to live their lives like men do.

Going by the picture and the story, one would conclude that the woman is the worse devil than a man is when it actual sense, it should take two to tangle.

This is how the media has continued to put a bad tag on women believed to have done something wrong while they try to protect men or reserve some respect for them.

Further, when one reads the article, which accompanies the picture, will notice that the story portrays the man as a strong person and champion for hooking the young girl. A silent message is that it is all right for a man to date the young woman and not for the woman to accept his proposal.

The article supports the bemba adage, which says (ubucende bwamwaume tabutoba ng’anda). this is a common saying in Zambia which says “ man’s womanizing does not break a marriage” simply meaning that it is fine for a man to commit adultery and his marriage is not expected to break unlike when it is the woman who engages in such conduct.

This just shows how society expects women whether married or not married not to engage in sexual affairs while men even if they are married have blessings from society to engage in such vices. The pictures further show the woman half-naked with breasts exposed while the man’s picture is only from behind the woman while in the other picture he is fully dressed.

The media sends a message that they can expose the woman’s body because she is condemned for engaging in a sexual affair with the married man. The man should have been in more trouble as compared to the woman because he is a married person as compared to the woman who is single.

By exposing the woman’s body, the article attempts to stripe her of her integrity while protecting that of the man. Because of how the article and pictures are published, the couple engaged in a sexual affair especially the woman maybe be shunned by society and that is the aim of the newspaper.

In as much as the media has a role to play in informing their readers about the happenings in society, the same media needs to protect and respect people’s privacy and integrity. They use this article to perpetuate stereotype against women to send a message, that they are prostitutes who snatch other women’s husbands as such society should not embrace them.

The woman’s body is again they use it to sell the newspaper the reason why the pictures are on the front page and the woman shown half-naked to try to entice the readers to buy the newspaper.