Adedotun Abiodun Adeola, Ph.D
Lecturer, The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
+234-806-0062-508
adeola.festus@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This paper examined the impact of one-on-one counselling on wearing sexually provocative dresses and the consequences among female students of higher learning institutions in Africa. The rate at which female students of higher learning wear sexually provocative dresses is a severe challenge in African society. Sexually provocative dresses are described as tight-fitting and body revealing, while sexually provocative dressing is wearing clothes that are inappropriate for a particular occasion or situation. Across Africa, many students in higher institutions of learning dress unacceptably on campus and even dress half naked to events, parties, and public places. The causes of indecent dressing have been traced to unguided civilisation, lousy parenting, poverty, unemployment, and involvement in improper events like nightclubbing, aristo lobbies, etc. This practice is contrary to the acceptable norms and values of African society. Thus, it discusses its negative repercussions like rape, unwanted pregnancy, poor academic performance, sexual assault and harassment, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) contact, among others. This paper provides the benefits of one-on-one counselling among female students of higher institutions of learning and recommends, among others, that parents should be morally conscious and disapprove of any form of sexually provocative dressing style by their children at home. Also, students should take their life seriously and avoid any practice that can negatively affect them. Implementing one-on-one counselling in higher institutions of learning will be an effective remedy to the problem of sexually provocative dressing among female students of higher education in Africa.
Key Words: Sexually-Provocative, Dressing, One-on-One, Counselling.
Introduction
Africans place value on morality, decency, and dignity; and frown at any form of indecent lifestyle within the family and society. In Africa, the elders pass culture and value systems from one generation to another generation to sustain the inherent pride, beauty, and glory of being an African. The inherent value and dignity appear to be eroded by unguided civilisation and acculturation, replacing or modifying certain societal and cultural elements such as dress, language, food, music, and religious practices upon contact with foreigners. One of the valued areas that are fading off in Africa is decent dressing among men and women. People are comfortable wearing sexually provocative dresses around in contemporary times, which is strongly disapproved of in the past.
Sexually provocative dress suggests that a person’s clothing is revealing, tight-fitting, or viewed as sexually suggestive in the content in which it is worn. Sexually provocative dressing (SPD) appear to be prevalent and widespread among female students in Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. In close observation, it was discovered that SPD is becoming the typical dressing style, a “social cankerworm” among students of higher institutions that needs to be eradicated. As Wolfendale (https://papers.ssm.com. 2016) defines it, sexually provocative dress includes all female appearance styles that deviate from the acceptable norm of a specific social situation toward sexual suggestiveness and body exposure.
It is to be noted that a dress can also be sexually suggestive or indecent when it is worn in the wrong gathering or context. For example, wearing a Bikini can be acceptable at sea during sunbathing or at the swimming pool, but wearing a Bikini to a shopping mall, cinema, school, or around the town would be counted as indecent or sexually provocative. This is because a Bikini would be more suggestive of nudity or lingerie in those places than at the swimming pool or sunbathing at the beach.
It is disheartening that some female students show no or are less concerned about the type of clothes they wear to school, church, and public social functions (Wolfendale, https://papers.ssm.com. 2016). I believe that good education liberates and that the more educated one is, the better one should be. Still, it seems higher education does not support reform, liberation, and transform some students morally, ethically, psychologically and socially. This significantly affects the students’ relationships, health, studies, and marital success.
Apart from the effect of sexually provocative dressing on students, it also affects society and academic institutions. From the writer’s observation, the rate at which female students put on sexually provocative dresses like miniskirts, spaghetti, bumper shorts, and see-through dresses in the “campus area” or “school area” (that is, the campus environment where many of the students lived) shows the level of moral decadence among the youth in contemporary society. People could easily see some students go around almost naked, braless, and hanging around with men. Any stranger in such an environment can easily discern that they have entered an entirely different community. Counselling is a tool to help people live morally in society. It helps in the modification and replacement of irrational beliefs and maladaptive thought patterns associated with self-destructive behaviour and attitude (McLeod, 2013, 10). Introducing of one-on-one counselling approach to students in higher institutions will have a significant impact on the correction and reduction of indecent dressing, especially among female students. Although many institutions have a counselling department where students study to be professional counsellors, the counselling centre where professional counselling is being offered to students is not available in many higher institutions. This paper, therefore, focuses on the impact of counselling in correcting the wearing of sexually provocative dresses among female students of higher institutions of learning in Nigeria.
