‘How can you dress provocatively and expect men not to get erection?’ – Woman asks

GhanaWeb reported on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, that a 61-year-old Nigerian woman, Doyinsola Ilori, has ignited a fierce social media debate after questioning why women who dress provocatively expect men not to become sexually aroused by their appearance. You know, it is one thing for society to engage in ongoing, necessary conversations about personal expression, fashion, and bodily autonomy, but it is an entirely different reality when a viral social media post attempts to biologically justify male sexual arousal as an uncontrollable “right” in response to female clothing choices, sparking intense backlash over the normalization of victim-blaming rhetoric.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the National Media Commission (NMC), traditional authorities, religious bodies, and the broader national gender equity, social morality, and sexual harassment prevention frameworks are institutionally mandated to foster respectful public discourse, ensure the protection of women from harassment and assault regardless of their attire, and guarantee that discussions around human biology and consent are handled with sensitivity and legal accuracy. When a public commentary explicitly frames male sexual arousal as an uncontrollable entitlement triggered by female clothing, it directly tests the core principles of gender sensitivity, bodily autonomy, and the foundational need to ensure that the burden of preventing sexual harassment remains on the perpetrator’s self-control rather than the victim’s wardrobe.

Taking to Facebook to express her profound confusion over modern consent and dress code debates, Ilori argued that she struggled to understand the argument that a man has no right to have an erection when a woman is dressed in a revealing manner. “I do not understand how a woman will be half naked, provocatively dressed and tell me the man does not have a right to have an erection,” she wrote in her viral post. Describing the societal pushback against male biological reactions as deeply baffling, she directly appealed to her followers for clarity. “This is one of the most confusing things I have had to deal with in my life. If you can, please make it make sense to me. ‘Kò yé mi’ and ‘Ọlọ́run ń gbọ́,’” she concluded, using Yoruba phrases to emphasize her genuine bewilderment at the modern consensus that a man’s physiological reaction does not grant him the right to harass, assault, or disrespect a woman based on her fashion choices.

You know, when such highly controversial, biologically deterministic arguments are broadcasted on social media to justify male sexual reactions to female attire, it highlights the critical importance of ensuring that our civic education and gender advocacy bodies aggressively promote the absolute distinction between involuntary physiological reactions and the conscious, legal obligation to respect bodily autonomy, so that the narrative of sexual harassment is never shifted away from the perpetrator’s accountability, doesn’t it? As the nation digests this intense online debate over dress codes, consent, and biological entitlements, the public continues to monitor the situation, recognizing that robust gender protection frameworks and cooperative dialogue between the Ministry of Gender, DOVVSU, the NCCE, women’s rights advocates, traditional authorities, and the citizenry are vital pillars for ensuring fairness, mutual respect, and order in Ghana’s socio-cultural and gender equity landscape.

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