Don Redefines Feminism, Cautions On Sexual Autonomy

THE 1960s feminist movement has failed in its ideologies leading to a rise in divorce, abortion and female abuse, says Professor of African Literature and Women’s Studies of the Department of English, University of Jos, Maureen Amaka Azuike.

Delivering the 73rd inaugural lecture of the university, Azuike, the 10th female professor to do so in the institution, argued that research has led her to conclude that ancient and modern feminist ideologies are threatening to derail the feminist train on a global scale.

Azuike, whose lecture is on ‘Transcending Moral Boundaries in Contemporary African Women’s Writings: Feminism and the Disillusionment of the Sexually Autonomous,’ warned that if a woman is morally loose and invites or consents to sex due to her voracious sexual appetite in the name of sexual freedom, “Such a woman should not cry wolf when her body is violated.”

She noted that the feminist movement is headed for a cataclysmic end, unless much is done to stem the downward trend of its conflicting ideologies. And that although feminism has won some victories for women, especially in securing political equality and access to education, the movement, to a large extent, has not provided ample solutions for the abandonment of family and children by women in favour of what she called “careerism.”
   
She pointed out that female sexual autonomy will remain a mirage if it is such that it dislocates the structure of the family, “prohibits childbirth, condones prostitution and encourages the unbridled quest for a sexual freedom which promotes sexual immorality and which leads our current generation into self-immolation.”