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What about Maharashtra issue, this is sex war? |
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Written by Vas Rajahut
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Monday, 06 August 2007 |
The Maharashtra government decided to ban sex education in high schools with the intention to protect Indian values.
The support of political parties in the opposition on the stance demonstrates two things.
One, when it comes to matters related to sex, the social attitudes of Bharat sideline those of India, so there is an overwhelmingly conservative slant in the country's gender equations as well as widespread sexual hypocrisy and misogyny.
Two, when it comes to matters related to women's and children's rights, political leaders across the political spectrum espouse antiquated, paternalistic notions about gender roles and responsibilities, and do not really represent a diversity of viewpoints.
There is well known that educated and urban India is much more open and right-minded about sex matters, but also Bharat' s sexual hypocrisy is there for all to be recognized.
Be it in the witch-hunt organized in Tamil Nadu against film actress, Khushboo, for speaking her mind on sex, or the fatwa issued against Sania Mirza for wearing short skirts on the tennis court, or the government-led effort to scapegoat bar dancers in Mumbai, Bharat's is a deeply woman-hating culture, one that shifts all the blame from the lecherous male gaze to the hapless woman.
Even as Bharat erects temples for Mother Goddesses and film starlets alike, almost any woman living in any part of the country will tell you that 'eve-teasing' and sexual harassment are so commonplace. A woman's legal and social options to retaliate so limited that they implicitly teach women to accept being treated as objects of sexual pleasure as simply a way of life.
Existing in a stifling culture of silence and compromise, then, has become synonymous with being an Indian woman - Bharatiya nari. Learning not to "talk back", wearing "simple" clothes, knowing just when and how to "adjust", showing distaste for anything vaguely sexual, and marrying only the boy papa chooses have become the criteria for being a "good" Bharatiya nari.
What are the criteria for being a good Bharatiya aadmi? Learning to patronize women if not 'eve-tease', harass and generally disrespect them? Learning how to "tame" women in the name of love and marriage as seen in Hindi movies, a barometer of popular Bharatiya mores? Learning to treat single women, widows and divorced ones as easy targets, to keep women behind locked doors in the name of protecting them? Learning that it is a man's prerogative to cheat on the spouse? Learning to control women?
Maharashtra government doesn't see the importance of sexual education in high school and its role in reversing long-term prejudices against women in Indian society?
That the Maharashtra government thinks educating school children about sex is a Western influence that will corrupt "pure" Indian minds demonstrates its own reverse snobbery and stupidity.
Aren't AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancies and single motherhood, dysfunctional families, sexual abuse and paedophilia, child prostitution - to name just a few - as much Indian issues as they are Western ones?
(c) http://www.sex-war.com/
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Last Updated ( Monday, 06 August 2007 )
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