Current Topics - A Question of Decency
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Archive |
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|---|---|
| Current | A Step towards Justice for All? |
| Jul 07 | A Question of Decency |
| Jun 07 | India's Environmental Challenges |
| May 07 | Deleted |
| Apr 07 | Three Lives Lalu Prasad Yadav Manu Sharma Arundhati Roy |
This month we look at the changing face of what is acceptable in the media and public. Changing attitudes towards women and sex in the land of the Karma Sutra.
A Question of Decency
India, in it's more isolationist period up to 1991, took a very conservative view on the image of women and attitudes towards sex. The land of the Karma Sutra and the Perfumed Garden still saw newly weds bed sheets hung out in the morning to prove virginity and any woman seen smoking would be openly questioned as a scarlet woman.
On attending the cinema in 1991, adverts for a Jodie Foster Movie from 1988 (The Accused) lined the hall way. With the jist of the tag line being ".....seeks revenge on the men who raped her!" a group of men in their early 20's agreed that it might as well have been the men who f***ed her. A common attitude amongst the not so small a minority of "eve-teasers" - basically men with no sense of moral boundaries and a superiority complex; at least with women. One picked up Hindi curses quickly when dating an Indian girl - knowing when to react to a blatant and disgusting insult from a passer-by. No holding hands in public, no kissing, no sign of any affection unless married and then be discrete. India seemed more Victorian than anything else. With AIDS rising and denial across the political spectrum, a 
model (Pooja Bedi) who posed in a not particularly revealing but sensuous advert for Karma Sutra (KS) condoms was widely condemned. The condemnation was for moving away from the practical requirements of family planning to visually pleasing imagery aimed at under 25's. This seemed strange when every hindi movie had the fountain scene where women danced around getting wet in thin sari's. KS condoms were successfully launched and how things have changed.
Of course prostitution has always been around and many young man's first experience was paid for as no decent girl would be willing to risk the shame of being found out. AIDS is now acknowledged and using a prostitute less acceptable (although there was an interesting article on middle-aged women using male prostitutes in 2005). Brahmins are no longer expected to remain chaste until marriage, nor frowned on for remarrying after being widowed and generally media problem pages cover many of the expected subjects. The media publishes more and more flesh each year -although the nipple count remains close to zero - and children of the well heeled attend parties in much the same attire as one would see anywhere else in the world.
The image of beauty also seems to have changed. Models now conform to western ideals of body, eye and nose shape. Fewer and fewer model have the classical outlined almond eyes and rounder face. The question for some in India is has it all gone too far? Divorce used to take 7 years of living apart and another 7 years to complete. Now divorce takes a couple of months, the divorce rate is up 100-350% since the turn of the century and 5 courts have been set up in Delhi to deal with cases. Women can smoke more openly, drinking is more acceptable, at least in major cities, but dress codes are seen by the conservatives as too revealing and disrespectful. Some womens groups see the exposure of flesh as just a bonus for men with little benefit for women. Shiela Joshi, an airhostess with Indian Airlines was suspended until she could lose an excess 3kg in weight. The court, with a woman judge, upheld the suspension. A young girl was filmed by her boyfriend who lovingly e-mailed all his friends, who passed it on and on.... A disgrace but no surprise!
When communism collapsed in 1989, one of the first imports was pornography and women were exported along with films shot locally. Russian, Romanian and Hungarian brides are still advertised in the personal columns of various magazines and newspapers. Repressed people will take full advantage of any leeway. As a whole the economies of these nations have done well and to focus too much on one sordid industry would take away from the gains as a whole. India has 2.5m HIV positive/AIDS infections of which 40% are women. Women are still not happy with asking to buy condoms or asking men to use them due to suspicion from vendors and partners alike. Sex education is non-existent. Classes in the 1980's did not even involve full biological details, nothing on menstruation, contraception or any facts on STD's, pleasure, pregnancy etc. Little has changed and many comments suggested that the teacher either new nothing, was too embarrased to teach the subject or did not want to be seen to be knowledgeable.
In a mature society, sex is part of life, a pleasure and unavoidable. There are over a billion Indians so sex happens - lots of it! Maharajas would have curtained passages from their harem to wherever they were. The Karma Sutra and temple carvings show a wide and experimental knowledge of the sexual act. Social norms should have nothing to do personal safety. How the young dress is fashion and fashions come and go. India lives at multiple speeds in a fashion that could be seen across centuries from ultra modern to feudal. Decency is how people treat each other. A well dressed woman can be a bitch and a short skirted girl can look great and anything but a tart. Behaviour and the way one carries oneself can have a bigger impact. Women are in politics but there are still not enough strong role models beyond doctors and simpering starlets - few film or TV roles crop up with any substance for women. The sad gits from the cinema are heard from less than before but as premarital sex becomes more expected and the act more expected, even more emphasis on education and reality is required.
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