WHEN Thelma (not her real name) died, her acquaintances had this sketchy Bemba phrase to say, ‘Thelma ubusuma bwakwe bwamulya.’ This translates in English to something like, ‘Thelma’s beauty has led to her death.’

Recently we had a trending story about a beautiful Kitwe lady who allegedly killed her husband. The two stories are similar in some ways. Thelma was said to be very beautiful and as such she attracted a lot of men, and in the end she died as a result of a hoard of diseases she acquired from her many lovers. Thelma’s story is similar to many women whoattract men because of their stunning beauty -as flowers attract bees.

In the recent Kitwe case, a young lady is said to have shot dead her husband after a marital dispute. According to social media photos, the girl looks beautiful, and that depends on what you look for in feminine beauty. Abuse by the husband is being mentioned in hushed tones in this case. It is circulated that the dead wealthy man was attracted to this girl because of her good looks and perhaps her young age. And if he’s not abusing her, then he’d be showing her off as a trophy.

Throughout history women have been used as tools of one kind or another. One Abram of the Bible passed his wife Sarai as ‘sister’ to save his skin. Read Genesis 12 v 10-13 if you doubt me. Again the story of King Solomon in the Bible supports me here when I say men have always taken advantage of women from way back. King Solomon was famous for his love of beautiful women. He’s said to have had 700 concubines at one point. What was he looking for other than beauty?

King David was another Bible character who had a weakness towards women. He had Uriah killed and got his wife. Bathsheba, the woman in this story, was said to be ‘beautiful to behold.’ Then we had Samson and Delilah. We know the story from Sunday school. So we can say with some levels of trepidation that Beauty Kills.

If men are not (ab)using women, then at best they are using them as symbols of beauty and what it means to be admirable. Last week I talked about how business houses make women bleach their skins for purposes of advertisements. Note that skin bleaching might cause skin cancer. Beauty Kills.

Many men would do anything to hook a beautiful woman, regardless of what it would cost them. Presidents and many wealthy persons divorce their wives of youth to marry a young beautiful lady twenty years their junior. Home and Family is concerned that some wealthy people are fond of dumping their wives of youth to take another woman that they feel suits their new status.

A word also to beautiful women who wait to find a wealthy man to marry: you can wait for a man of your dreams till your beauty wears away. Or you can hurriedly marry a reckless man who can bring you diseases. It’s a dicey situation, I must admit. In some worse cases, women kill abusive husbands if they fail to stand their cruelty – the case of the trending Kitwe story.

For men who look for gorgeous ladies, remember that a lady can overpower you with her beauty and manipulate you – the case of David and Delilah.

For men: If you have married a beautiful woman. It means you are at risk. Because many other men would want to tow her out. And you know what that means. If you are a woman and married to a wealthy man, know that other women would stop at nothing to go out with him. And you know what that means, too.

I would have summed up my article today by giving solutions to this whole debacle of Beauty Kills, but I have long concluded that human beings are the only creatures that continuously seek to discover something better than what they already have. Maybe this is what we call development. Or maybe human depravity. We all want to driver the latest vehicle and build new houses with latest furnishings. We seek the latest clothing to keep up with trends. We toil to impress others. Men kill to defend their wives. Beautiful women kill to protect their marriage. The evil cycle goes on.

So I guess that stories of Beauty Kills will be part of our lives till the trumpet sounds.

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