Sex, sleaze and social media

Gayatri Sankar

Eroticism has now availed a new medium – that preciously comes cheaper than electronic media – and probably has a much wider reach. Sex is indispensable to all forms of life on earth and most importantly for man, the master of the world. The internet era has no limit in displaying this lustful desire of man and inciting him to cling on to it until he feels contented and overdone or possibly increases his libido! In India, which happens to be the world’s second most populated nation, discussing sex in public is still a taboo. However, with the popularity of the World Wide Web, watching and talking sex have become a trend of sorts. In the recent past, women like Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra and Rozlyn Khan have grabbed eyeballs in large numbers by turning into sex objects on social networking sites, thus gaining some mileage from the “sex-starved” section of the society. If we look through what Ms Poonam Pandey has done since the Indian Cricket Team was all set to qualify for the World Cup Finale, we can see a steady growth in the emergence of the so called “internet sensation” as a celebrity. She was successful in making headlines and subsequently managed a huge fan following. The then 19-year old girl had committed to parade nude to celebrate India’s World Cup victory, but lived up to her words only recently. Though it’s pretty difficult to predict where Poonam Pandey is heading, one thing is for certain- the girl knows how to market herself – courtesy, social media. She might as well think of an alternative career as a marketing guru, in case her dream of turning into an A-list Bollywood actress goes down the drain! Nonetheless, Poonam has certainly led the league of her kind by making the most of what’s easily available to the urban crowd. Though Poonam had initiated the trend of claiming to go nude on social media, it was Sherlyn Chopra, the cry baby of ‘Bigg Boss 4’ fame, who dared to go full monty on Twitter. The woman thought she could better Sunny Leone in ‘Jism 2’ and even aped the film’s poster showing a nude woman lying on the floor. What followed Chopra’s version of ‘Jism 2’ was a birthday return gift for her fans- a picture of hers that leaves absolutely nothing to imagination. A number of her followers on the micro-blogging site hailed her for her “bold” act and Chopra could do little but accept all the praises that were being showered on her. However, with the emergence of porn star Sunny Leone in the circuit, the Sherlyn Chopras and Poonam Pandeys seemed to have lost some part of their fan following, for they had found someone far more appealing! The Indo-Canadian porn star, too, took advantage of the social media to build a strong foundation for her “new” career in India. Finding stiff competition from the imported sex-doll and a few desi attention-starved wannabes, Poonam Pandey might have thought it was high time for her to prove that her promise wasn’t empty. Hence, her decision to strip for Shah Rukh Khan’s Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders. Taking a leaf from Poonam’s book, Rozlyn Khan dared to bare all to cheer up Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, who ended up being the runner-up in the recently concluded IPL 5. The controversial lady had earlier made a number of desperate attempts to hog limelight by posing topless to raise awareness about breast cancer and even showing off her butt to promote IPL. What is remarkable is that these women have chosen to turn into sex-objects on social media to gain instant popularity. They are the so called “modern women” of India who believe in attaining complete freedom, and hence they have been shedding their clothes! In India, where millions are yet to benefits from the internet, the social media has undoubtedly acted as a boon. But hope this new genre of media acts more responsibly than turning into a platform for unreasonable display of sleaze.