With her tiny legs and arms held close to her angelic body and sparks of hope hidden underneath tender eyelids, she smiles with a pleasant thought of entering a world that’s alien to her. From the comfort of her mother’s cozy womb, she will now have to embark upon a perilous journey…and there’s no escaping.
As this little angel grows up expecting the world to treat her with respect and love, she comes across perturbing issues in life - gender bias, eve-teasing, domestic abuse and so on and so forth. With adolescence, come a number of demands - some self created and some put forward by the world.
After being slapped with the tag of the “fairer-sex”, the girl nurtures the desperate “want” to look beautiful and that’s what even society adamantly asks for. And looking good is not restricted to having a pretty face…it’s beyond that (ask the men). It’s far beyond hooking on to the mirror with layers of skin whitening creams. It is as far as going under the knife to ge
t the body corrected cosmetically!
But what leads to taking surgical steps to rectify one’s appearance? Is it the society that pokes fun at her for her inadequacies; is it her insecurities; or is it something else? I really wonder!
While some cope with societal pressure and accept themselves as they are, some go beyond what is socially acceptable to transform into an ‘eye candy’ with least embarrassment of ridiculing their own existence and the institution of womanhood. The “woman” in her gladly accepts the “disgrace” of being termed as a sex object and doesn’t mind being one, for the fittest alone survives. And it’s a man’s world after all!
The big debate over who incites rape and sexual assault will never cease to exist. A feminist would believe that ‘rape’ defines a man’s insecurity about his own shortcomings while a chauvinist would beg to differ.
No matter who ends up becoming the catalyst, it’s a woman’s body that is being shamelessly abused - the culprit could be the woman herself.
Here in India, a country that gifted Kamasutra to the world and proudly displays sensuality at the Khajuraho, people have yet to come to terms with nudity. The reason – hypocrisy, or the fact that sleaze is presented under the garb of nudity?
Feminine sculptures in most Indian architectural geniuses are found in nude, but the naked representation of the fairer sex is considered art and rightly so because sleaze doesn’t seem to be the idea behind such portrayal…at least for me. Even Goddess Kali is worshipped in her nude form. It could be perception, but again as they say, there’s a very thin line between sleaze and sensuality.
However, with internet getting more and more popular with time, India is getting hooked to all kinds of stuff and most of it seems to be the one dominated by the Sunny Leones, Poonam Pandeys, Veena Maliks and the Sherlyn Chopras.
That doesn’t substantiate Indian society’s acceptance to sleaze and nudity. But who cares! Anything wonderfully wrapped and gifted is more than happily accepted. It’s like relishing something under wraps, but not publicly acknowledging it.
When the likes of Poonam Pandey and Sheryln Chopra endorse sleaze by turning into sex objects…why blame men alone? They believe shedding clothes is freedom but I reckon that’s like wounding their entities.
Voluntarily ridiculing womanhood by either venturing into flesh trade or grabbing naked bodies in stills shows nothing but a desperate “want” to grab attention and garner quick fame that’s short-lived. For how long will they be able to sustain by commercializing their bodies?
A man abusing a woman’s body is a spineless act and unforgiving, but a woman unapologetically shaming her femininity is utterly disgraceful.
On Women’s Day, here’s paying a tribute to the women of substance with a hope that every woman admires herself for being born as a manifestation of motherhood rather turning into an item for the voyeur.
(The views expressed by the author are personal)