A Lagos-based digital agency, Anakle, has come under criticism, internationally, over the creation of an online game application, Bride Price.
The application, described by the creators as “a joke and all there is to it,” has gone viral, with over two million views since its release on May 25, 2014.
According to the company, people from over 180 countries have used the app, with Nigeria, the United States of America and the United Kingdom generating the most traffic.
Speaking with the Cable News Network on the concept and impact of the app, Editi Effiong, the creator of the app and owner of Anakle, said, “It may be hard for our foreign audience to understand, but I don’t see why the scores on any app, joke or not, should affect the love (one) has for (his) wife, or her self-worth. We Nigerians don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
However, some Nigerians have taken issue with the app, as an online petition had been signed by up to 160 individuals, who feel it is discriminatory against women for a number of reasons.
The petition, created by Ikechukwu Onyemelukwe, on www.change.org, is entitled ‘Take down the app that promotes objectification and misogyny towards women.’
It reads in part, “Bride Price Check is a web app that assigns virtual monetary value (in Naira) to women in an attempt to calculate their bride price based on their level of education, skin colour, nationality, weight, beauty, country of residence, etc.
“In recent times, there have been concerns about the effect that payment of bride price has on gender equality, early or forced marriage, as well as domestic violence towards women.
“The Bride Price app promotes racism, sexism, and discrimination against women. By assigning a price tag, it devalues the true worth of a woman; it promotes the ideology that women are the lesser gender, and are expected to please men.
It further said the app assigned a lesser monetary value for having darker skin, greater value for being mixed-race, tall, having no tribal marks, and deducts for having a particular accent.
It added that the app limited the level of ambition and education which women were expected to have by deducting monetary value for women who obtained a doctorate degree.
“This is not in any way different from the mentality that the terrorist group, Boko Haram, have towards women, and how they have demonstrated this with the kidnapping of over 200 Chibok schoolgirls.
Oyi Ade, a supporter of the petition in New Jersey, USA, said, “This is sexist and demeaning. We shouldn’t be valuing women on (the basis of) colour in 2014.”
Oluwaseyi Adelabu in France said, “It just isn’t right.”
C. Henderson in the United Kingdom said what was bothersome was that people were allowed from “these countries into Britain and they bring this attitude with them.”
On another online forum, Jasilee said, “I am uneasy at the timing of this article given the lack of action and result from Nigeria in returning the abducted girls to their families.”
But some persons simply found the app amusing.
Ofility said, “Now I know the reason I’m not getting suitors.
“My bride price is worth a trillion dollars; not even Bill Gates can afford me.”
After one online critic, Rosethornne, described the app as “utterly disgusting,” one other, Narchais, replied, “Come on, I’m sure it didn’t evaluate you as being that low.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
You may successfully put down the App, but you cant put down the mentality from the head and mind of the average man. Can somebody go and undertake independent research to see if the position of the App is true or not? Am yet to see the App but i know from the description that what they App is depicting is actually true. That however is not suppose to influence your choice of a life partner cos ppl have their own peculiar flare for women. I personally have preference for dark ladies. therefore i will be charged less for bride price (lol). why didnt all this critiques criticize collection of bride price by parent as well?
ReplyDelete