Nollywood actress, Mary Remmy Njoku has questioned what people would call 17 men who, she said, enjoy the wealth of a successful man while being described as his “boys”, instead of being labelled gold diggers.
Njoku raised the issue in a social media post while reacting to the way women are often judged for benefiting from the generosity of wealthy men.
“If benefiting from a wealthy person’s generosity makes a woman a gold digger, what exactly do we call the 17 men eating his food, wearing what he bought, enjoying his money and calling themselves his boys?” she asked.
The actress gave the example of a man identified as Emeka, who she said returned home after becoming successful and had 17 grown men constantly around him.
According to her, the men eat his food, wear clothes he bought, have their bills paid and enjoy his money, but their relationship with him is described as “brotherhood”, “networking” and “loyalty.”
Njoku argued that the same standard is not applied when a woman stays close to a wealthy man and benefits from his generosity.
“The double standard isn’t that people love money. It’s that when men benefit from proximity to wealth, we give the behaviour a respectable name. When women do the same thing, we give it a dirty one,” she wrote.
She added that men, women, friends, relatives and employees can all be drawn to people whose wealth or position can make their life easier.
Mary Njoku challenges ‘Gold Digger’ label against women, cites men living off rich friend