The Effect of Proverbs and Portrayal of Women by Society

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how culture and tradition can bring a unity or disunity and perpetual disintegration and the renewal to people. Traditionally, women were portrayed by society through the use of proverbs as tools and submissive to men. For example, women were abused undermined and dominated by men through the name of culture and tradition that resulted to stereotype behavior. To be clear, in the use of proverbs there is no classification of women in the portrayal by society such as class, age, ethnicity, sexuality and ability. This classification of women in proverbs is of more important to address the ethnic mosaic and expectations by society. Setswana proverbs struggle to imagine the lives of a single women or mature divorcees who fall under the societal women. The paper argues that proverbs are used on various experiences as a means of social control and represent life lessons and accumulated events that make up conscious of a nation or humankind in general. Most of the proverbs and sayings are directed mainly to women with the intention of teaching women and young girls how to behave and take care of themselves but most proverbs that touches on women contains negation of the value of women in society. The purpose is to show that cultures do not remain the same, they change over time through interaction with other cultures and to find out whether in contemporary society is it possible for the proverbs to change. Thus, the study recommends the need for change of mind set and designing appropriate intervention mechanisms focus on cultural beliefs and values. In contemporary times there has been a turn-around on the lives of women where urban/rural women are no longer submissive to men. This shows that women change but proverbs do not change. The common problem of portrayal of black women is cultural pluralism. In this paper a qualitative approach is used to explore and discuss the cultural expectations and portrayal of black women in South Africa. This paradigm is explored through the use of feminism approach and post-modernity theory. Secondary method of collecting data is being used to gather more information about the use of proverbs in the South African perspectives.