Senegalese TV Series Mistress Of A Married Man. Game Changer?

Despite having been lambasted by some culturally rigid conservatives, Senegalese TV series Mistress Of A Married Man alias Maitresse D'un Homme Marie is emerging as a game changer in attitudes of people towards sexual relationships in Senegal and Africa South of the Sahara at large. That was reported by some media on July 2, 2019. A synopsis about the series, may be helpful in understanding why that is happening.

The two-episode per week Mistress of A Married Man TV series was launched by a private Senegalese TV channel in January 2019. Since then, it has been gaining popularity, with each episode reportedly attracting up to 2 million views in YouTube.

The series is starred by five sexually liberated stunningly beautiful Senegalese women who go about the city exercising and enjoying their individual freedom in various ways. The latter include having romantic relationships with married men of their choice and liking, with some of them marrying the married men.

Although the series does not contain explicit sex act scenes, it however, provides premises of departure for viewers to easily insinuate or fantasize such eventualities. In any case, that does not make the series pornographic in any way, because people do insinuate and fantasize things even in the absence of influencing situations or objects. To most people in the free world therefore, the soap opera would be totally acceptable. But to some in Senegal, it is not.

The Senegalese critics of the series, mainly men or men-led organizations, are said to embrace rigid value orientations influenced to large extent by machismo and sectarianism, and propagate gross gender inequality. The critics have reportedly castigated the soap opera, especially after its 34th episode, as been too sexy for Senegal. They particularly said the series glorified fornication and adultery.

Notwithstanding, however, the female producers of the soap opera do not agree with the male critics. They are said to have fired back, accusing the critics of double standard attitude or hypocrisy towards sexual relationships in the West African nation. They observed the men while criticizing the soap opera, are the same ones who have mistresses that they abuse in manners worse than what the series portrays.

The defiant female producers continued their assault on the male critics, adding their soap opera portrays current Senegalese society, and thrives towards creating public awareness about some of the society's crucial issues that they say include, among others, the following:

1) Neglected/suppressed women emancipation desires

2) Male infidelity

3) Neglect of wives and children by men

4) Subjective judgement of women by men

5) Double standard attitude of men towards sexuality

Great TV series that addresses very relevant societal issues not only in Senegal but the whole of Africa, and perhaps some other parts of the world as well. For it to emerge as a game changer in people's attitude towards sexual relationships in Senegal and beyond is, therefore, not surprising!

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