The Herald Ghana: We don’t celebrate women, we objectify them

It is alarming the rate at which we make celebrities out of women because they have big buttocks and breasts.

The urgency of fighting this national embarrassment as opposed to sweeping it under the carpet cannot be overemphasized.

Bloggers and online portals, these days make a living by objectifying women. Never a day passes without coming across a headline like "Woman Causes Stir on Social Media with Her Big Butt" "Shatta Wale's Girl Causes Stir With No Makeup Photo", "Hajia Bintu Shakes Social Media With Her Curves", Shatta Wale's Girl Choqolate dazzles in new bedroom photos; Fans praise her, " Photos of the hottest and curviest Ghanaian police lady in Ghana Get Fans Talking" etc.

Women should not be celebrated only because they are well endowed physically, a lot of women are excelling in their fields of endeavour.

We objectify women too much in this country; unfortunately, we see them only as sex objects, and not as willing and capable partners.

This newspaper is appalled by this kind of reportage. We expect all adults of conscience to speak against and advocate for a stop to the debasing of women on the basis of their naturally endowed body.

Nothing makes this more disturbing than the fact that some of these stories are written by women, who ought to know better.

It is sad to note that, stories with headlines we have captured above are increasingly becoming rampant as internet penetration increases.

No day passes without these stories that as a society we have decided to gloss over. As a newspaper, we are worried that, it will not be advisable to ask for censure, but we can advise colleagues in the media to be responsible for how women are projected.

Women are consistently being objectified and this is linked to cultural and religious practices that demand the subjugation and submission of women to men.

This newspaper is of the view that the protection of our women should be prioritised, as this would go a long way to prevent exploitation.