Framing Sexist Hateful Words and Actions in Nigeria : The Paradox of Women Exclusion in Development

Feminist and critical scholarship situates sexist discourse in hate speech as creating, perpetrating and justifying dominance and violence against women. This paper is insightful to the increased public awareness and support to address the alarming rate of virulence of speech and actions on social, political, virtual and ethno-religious spaces in Nigeria that deflects attention from sexist hateful words and actions. Sexist hate speech has remained invisible and unaddressed because it is embedded in the complex social matrix and historical continuities that relegate women to the background. Actions and words are equal, pervasive in nature but sexually suggestive hateful words and actions are denigrating and lead to vulnerabilities of women and girls. This discourse challenges sexist hate speech as false perceptions that have institutionalized social hierarchies animated by sexual prejudice, stereotypes and the basis for women exclusion in development in both private and public spaces. The article analyzes the multiple dimensions of intersectional realities of sexuality, gender and other social categories that are shaped by social practices like spoken or written words, actions and power relations undermining equity and women inclusion. The paper examines the invisibility of legal and constitutional frameworks that particularly address sexist epithets as validating the permissibility of sexist speech in Nigeria.