Eru aya, Oshodi-Oke, maami, ki leleyi?, aunty se n’ tomo lowo ni” (heavily breasted, what’s this?, are you breast feeding?) were the words that assailed the ears of a chubby and light-skinned 30-year-old Wunmi, as she alighted from a commercial bus at the popular Oshodi bus stop in Lagos.
The lady was trying to locate the Mafoluku part of the area that day. She has become used to manly taunts every time she walks Lagos streets with her mountainous boobs harassing eyes of sex-starved men and perverts.
That evening, the lady, who preferred to be identified only as Wunmi, said she took a commercial motorcycle plying an inner street she was heading for. She told our correspondent that some of the men who initially gathered under a tree followed her, shouting “o ma jabo (the breasts will fall)’ as the rider entered a bump in dusty terrain.
She, however, said she was unperturbed as the scene had become normal for her.
A study, published in The Journal of Socio-Economics, found that men with fewer financial resources gravitate toward larger breasts.
Besides, a German study noted that looking at boobs for 10 minutes a day would improve a man’s cardiovascular health. These findings could have further impressed men who find large breasts irresistible.
Wunmi said, “It is what I face daily; bus conductors, okada riders, bus drivers, louts and others scream anytime they see me. Some men will stare as if they want to enter inside me. I am used to it but it’s not right. They embarrass me all the time because I am busty. It is not that I did anything to my breasts to make them big. It is the way I am created. At first, I used to be shy about it but over time, I have come to accept it that that is the way I was created and I love my breasts.”
However, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), noted that sexual harassment didn’t have to be ‘sexual.’ It could also be teasing, intimidating or offensive comments based on stereotypes (e.g., about how certain people ‘are’ or should act), or bullying someone or a group of people based on their sex. It further defined nature and circumstances which sexual harassment was unlawful. They include unwelcome touching; staring or leering; suggestive comments or jokes; sexually explicit pictures or posters; requests for sex; intrusive questions about a person’s private life or body; unnecessary familiarity, such as deliberately brushing up against a person; insults or taunts based on sex and others.
Nasty experiences from raunchy men
Wunmi isn’t the only one caught in the web of constant sexual harassment by men both literate and illiterate, in private and public. Yomi, an administrative officer, is also one.
She has faced several sexual harassments from when she was young and it seems not to be ending soon especially from touts, commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders at bus stops.
The ladies who spoke with Saturday PUNCH gave only their first names and requested the covering of their faces to avoid undue publicity.
Yomi said, “When I found out that I have started growing big breasts back then, I did everything to hide them. I would wear a double bra so they wouldn’t show in my school uniform that my breasts were big.
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