We were having lunch upstairs when someone brought up the video of rapper Safaree’s enormous man part that was trending on social media. And as these conversations often go, it sooner than later drifted from Safaree’s womb-shifter to personal experiences and tales of penises that can barely scratch the surface. It was all in good, harmless fun. We are women, grown women who as expected, have our different tastes in men. You see, I’d like to tell you that every time women like us gather, we talk about our future and all of the lofty heights we plan to attain. But the truth is, sometimes – actually scratch that, ALL THE FUCKING TIME, we talk about men, we talk about sex, and yes we talk about penises too.
On this day however, common sense and empathy sort of prevailed. One of us decided it wasn’t such a cool idea to laugh at people for something they have no control over, and we all agreed – or at least most of us did. Those of us who agreed went on to argue that women always flare up and brandish the body shaming card every time a man doesn’t use some of the fancy words we’ve coined to describe women of certain sizes but somehow, we’re cool with making fun of men for their body parts – much like we’d been doing.
Those of us who didn’t, had their reasons too. A-cups never catch a break on Twitter. If men can so openly discuss their preferences and “specs” in women, why can’t we? Isn’t what is good for the goose also good for the gander?
This conversation was so heated (and honest) I decided that it needed to be captured on camera, in an episode of our flagship girl talk show, Guys, Gossip & Other Girls hosted by Bibi and Enitan – two of the most brilliant and beautiful minds you’d ever come across.
On this episode, they were joined by Damola, another brilliant, beautiful and very vocal colleague.
What followed was a 13-minute long video of three young women having a bold and thoroughly honest conversation about a topic that you and I have, all the time in the comfort of our homes, offices and classes. Only difference? There are usually no cameras
Like we usually do, we posted a teaser of this episode on our Twitter – a one-minute clip that captured only a tiny fraction of this conversation, and well, the reaction has been everything but mild.
So out of all the topics in d world this set of hopeless beings decided to talk about penis 💁🏾♂️… see what the country is causing
— T 👀 (@itsOsiT) April 9, 2018
Please do better.. These are humans you are talking about.. It seems funny but it’s still shaming another person for something they have no control over.
— Lolo Cynthia (@Lolo_cy) April 12, 2018
There were lots of harsh-worded tweets asking us to take down the video because it came across as body shaming. And in all fairness, I kinda get the point these people were making. This particular clip was triggering. But then isn’t that what teasers are supposed to do?
And even if that wasn’t a teaser, it was someone’s very honest take on a topic, alas a controversial one, and we’re not in the habit of shutting people up. I mean, you might want to fault the next person’s opinion about certain issues. You might not agree with it but it is their opinion, and no matter how you want to look at it, they are entitled to it.
I stayed up for most of last night wondering what to do about the clip and the negative feedbacks it was getting. I was genuinely worried (yeah in my almost 7 months as editor of 234Star, I, unfortunately, still haven’t developed a thick skin) but I knew taking down the video wasn’t an option – even if it wasn’t against the policy of my salary payers. These conversations need to be had. It is important that they are had irrespective of what side of the divide you are on. It is in having them that we can correct faulty reasonings and lines of thoughts.
Selah!
Oh and my personal take on the topic? Small Dicks Matter!
