Your lordship, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, opposing counsel on the prosecution bench, the general public. I will like to begin the opening argument in the case STATE OF POPULAR OPINION versus the accused, CYNTHIA MORGAN. The charges leveled against the accused include “reckless exposure of an under-aged, a baby at that, to 'what appears' to be drugs or other endangering substance”, “exhibiting gross irresponsibility by depicting the exposure of a baby to drugs via a using handler”, and finally, “an unsuccessful attempt at creative photography”. To all of these charges, on behalf of the defendant, I plead, NOT GUILTY!
Cynthia Morgan VS State of popular opinion
This is an exclusive blog post by Dammy Layode. "... I will like to begin the opening argument in the case STATE OF POPULAR OPINION versus the accused, CYNTHIA MORGAN..."
Cynthia Morgan
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Order!!! Order!!! Order!!!
If I may, your honor, to begin the defense's argument, I will like to quote the definition of art by wikipedia.com which says that “Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities, usually involving imaginative or technical skill. In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art”. The article goes on to state that “Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities”. This my lord, is the basis of the defense's riposte.
Personally, being an aficionado, I like to think that “Art is a representation of reality or imagination through human activities but more importantly, for this representation to be termed Art, it has to provoke one or more emotion in one that is exposed to it”. That said, the picture(s) in question that have sparked so much anger and outrage in the public space in the last few days, qualify as Art – Creative Art. This is evident in the theme of the shoot, “Baby Mama”. I will come back to the theme in a bit.
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This picture, this art, has provoked a range of emotions and some personalities that do not understand how they feel or why they feel a certain way, have chosen to channel this emotions negatively and in the wrong direction by attacking the artiste.
Back to the theme of the shoot. Urbandictionary.com defines Baby Mama as “A term used to define an unmarried young woman (but can be a woman of any age) who has had a child. As mentioned before in another definition, most of the time it is used for when it was simply a sexual relationship, compared to ex-wife or girlfriend. Usually this has a negative connotation, a lot of baby mamas are seen as desperate, gold digging, emotionally starved, shady women who had a baby out of spite or to keep a man. Sometimes they may act like this because of missed child support payments, unfulfilled promises by the father, or convenient sex by the father. Either or both may exist in any situation. “ Please note the clear distinction between a “Baby Mama” and a “Single Mama”
I hope the above definition helps us begin to see the relation between the picture(s) and the theme. If I may state, this is a relevant conversation being initiated here and the trend is not more prevalent anywhere else than in the entertainment industry where recent times have seen our beloved artistes turn “Baby Daddies (victims)” of these women being depicted in the picture. I know this argument trumps the 2 and 3 charge against the defendant.
On the charge of the reckless endangering of the baby to endangering substance, knowing the personalities managing the artiste's affair by their reputation, permit me your honor before this court, to challenge anyone including the people running the studio where the picture was taken, to step forward with evidence - material or not, that can substantiate the claim that what was held in the picture, was in fact an endangering substance.
While the Art is expected to provoke outrage in the person exposed to it, this emotion would be better served initiating conversations such as the one been held by Linda Ikeji, a single selfmade woman who is using her success as a tool to inspire young women to aspire towards being #SelfMade and not resort to the Baby Mama gimmicks.
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On these grounds, I will implore the court to acquit the defendant of all charges levelled against her.
I rest my case.
.
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