Uganda Faces Sex Tourism Backlash For Wanting To Using Curvy Woman For Tourism; Here Is Why Its A Good Idea

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The africanexponent.com reported below, read our thoughts at the end in red

Why don’t we use these people [curvy women] as a strategy to promote our tourism industry?”

In Uganda, a plan has been mooted to promote tourism in the country, but this plan is pretty much unfriendly. The tourism minister in Uganda, Godfrey Kiwanda, suggested the use of “curvy women” as a tourism “product” and the ladies are not happy with this.

Kiwanda wants to champion this plan for the country, but he will need to be prepared for a lot of backlash. At the launch of a plus-size beauty pageant in the capital Kampala, the minister described the plan that the country would take in promoting tourism using full-figured women.

“Uganda is endowed with beautiful women. Their beauty is unique and diverse. That’s why we decided to use the unique beauty, the curves… to make this beauty a product to be marketed along with what we already have as a country ranging from nature, the language and food, to make it a tourist attraction,” Kiwanda said this to AFP on Thursday.

The beauty pageant for the “curvy women” is part of these plans. The pageant will be held in June. Kiwanda said that the winner of the Miss Curvy Contest would be part of the country’s tourism campaign, where beauty will be used as a proudct to promote tourism.

But these plans have already raised the indignation of many in the country. The arguments border on the objectification of women, treating them as some products and not as human beings.

It is due to this anger, that the comments have been labelled “dehumanizing” and “degrading.” Some want the beauty pageant to be scrapped off, and others are calling for the tourism minister to resign.

The executive director of the Uganda Women’s Network told AFP that the minister’s plans are a form of “perversion.” She said, “This is perversion. To think women can be used as sex objects in this age and time is an absurdity and we condemn it.”

Some said that the minister thinks women are “zoo animals” who are supposed to be put “in a cage for the tourists to see.”

An online petition on Change.org has been launched, with the intention of stopping the campaign. Primrose Nyonyozi Murungi, who is an entrepreneur and activist, is behind the petition.

“Women in Uganda have been attacked while on the streets. What happens now that the government is confirming a stereotype that women are sexual objects and can be touched regardless and more so made a product of tourism,” she said.

Feeling the anger, Kiwanda said that, “Diverse as we are as a country we have a message to put out there about the different curves our women have, which we believe is a tourism attraction.”

It is interesting to see whether the government will proceed with these plans, or whether it will give in to the anger of the people.

In retro respect we believe it’s an amazing idea and here is why. Social media is flooded with tonnes of popular girls who are only popular for being sexy. Yes most of them show a lot of skin but lets face it. there are many who are popular simply just for looking good and beautiful and curvy, even if they never get naked. These ladies make no money simply for being beautiful, in fact most of them are only putting themselves on blast so some random man will call them up to sleep with them for cash (I said most not all). It’s also hard to believe that many businesses are seeking such popularity to promote themselves yet girls with nothing to sell have managed to capture such views, what could be better than using them to promote their country and their nation? Yes, the arguement is that their promoting sex tourism, but just even if it was, no man will go to a country to sleep with a woman and not eat the food or pay for transport etc. So even if it was sex tourism it will still promote other businesses in the process. Now let’s deal with if it is sex tourism. Sex tourism is only made possible if there is much prostitution, a large part of prostitution exists due to poverty, if these girls who are serving their countries by promoting it amongst their followers who adore them because they are sexy, and then they are also getting paid by the state then atleast their beauty is being paid for and if they have aspirations that need finances they won’t need to sleep around for it. In simple these girls are attracting attention one way or the other, and a gvt will spend on tourism to attract attention one way or the other, and whether we like it or not, a big part of tourism is the women, so why not actually reduce sex tourism by giving the curvy women a job in tourism all whilst encouraging tourism? If you don’t get it, just enjoy your day. Let’s just put it this way, if that sexy girl wasn’t on our header image, 90% of people wouldn’t have seen this article.