India & Its Sexual Objectification Conundrum
[Editor’s Note—Last week, Homegrown published an article extolling the various virtues of iconic Indian porn character, Savita Bhabhi, in the fight for feminism in a country that’s deeply polarized the issue. In this article, Ritvik Bucky Chauhan, a feminist writer extraordinaire, challenges our positions with admittedly compelling arguments and solutions to boot. A must read for everyone entangled in an issue that needs media integrity now more than ever.]
In 1984, Orwell posits that people will be controlled by inflicting pain upon them, whereas Huxley, in a Brave New World, suggests that people will be controlled by inflicting pleasure. Regarding female sexuality, they both might be correct. Orwellian desexualisaton - the fear of hymen loss, the skepticism of sexually immodest women, and in some cases, the absolute denial of information regarding female sexual identities has lead some Middle Eastern and African cultures to force women to cover up from head to toe, persecute pre marital sex, and in extreme cases- to mutilate their clitorises and labia in an attempt to make sexual pleasure physically impossible.
And on the other hand, Huxleyan hyper-sexualisation has lead to people in the first world being bombarded with sexualised imagery- porno, hip-hop videos, item numbers, sexualised advertisements- a sea of triviality, irrelevance, and airbrushed, hairless flesh in which meaningful gestures of sexual agency on the part of women, get drowned. Social pressure in both paradigms have made both the burkha, and the bikini, signs of oppression; and whether it’s a Ghanaian girl getting her vulva mutilated at birth, or an Australian pornstar opting for a labioplasty, female genitalia are being held at knife-point by patriarchal societies that insist on claiming ownership over female sexuality, rather than devolving that ownership to the people who will actually scream (in pain or in pleasure) when something happens to their vaginas.
India seems to suffer from the worst of both worlds - Indian men love the Sanskari Nari (traditional woman), lust after the item girl, but seem to respect neither, unless they are that individual man’s mother, sister, or goddess. As I’ve explained here , the divergent forces of traditional misogyny and modern objectification have created a depraved and deprived sexual culture that obviously has a large part to play in the rape epidemic.
This has caused many people to speak out against the commoditisation of female bodies and sexuality. Reducing superstar actresses to objects of male pleasure, they argue, makes men view all women as such. Western/Modern notions of sexual openness are misplaced because they de-humanise sex. Sexual content ought to be censored and controlled so as to give women their due respect and promote the right sorts of notions of gender relations and politics. Depicting a room full of 100 men being captivated by a curvaceous and scantily clad item girl’s moves not only degrades the item girl, but all women in general.
The issue I have with this (aside from a prima facie Free Speech objection, perhaps) is that any intervention in the media, or in culture (sexual culture in particular) almost always suffers from a regressive conformity to the status quo. The fear of painting women as sexual objects might lead us to undervalue portrayals of women as sexual agents, because all these portrayals are likely to get dusted under the carpet as raunchy or hypersexualised.
Show a man engaging in a threesome with two women, the women will be viewed as sex slaves; show a woman engaging in a threesome with two men, she’ll be viewed as a slut. In a world where not only the source, but also the recipient of a social message tends to shape the discourse, it is very difficult to pick a value- submissive or assertive, sexual or asexual, raunchy or reserved; that we think is a desirable manifestation of female sexuality. The people that insist that sex enslaves women tend to forget that sex can empower as well.
And as the pendulum swings between Orwellian and Huxleyan worlds; the argument in favour of empowerment through sexualisation can also be stretched too far. Homegrown posits that Savita Bhabhi, India’s Queen of comic porno is an empowered feminist, because she can break the shackles of her mundane domestic life by engaging in forbidden sex. A year or so ago, I was of a similar view, posting on facebook that:-
“The term ‘item number’ is quite the misnomer.
“My name is Sheela
Sheela ki jawani
I’m too sexy for you
Main tere haath na aani”
Most item numbers, such as Sheila ki Jawani, depict a woman who’s not only irresistible but also inaccessible to most men. A picture of sexual vibrance, and sexual autonomy, both at the same time (unlike a hip-hop video).
The idea of a woman dancing promiscuously and provocatively in a room full of dozens of men who are so mesmerised by her presence that they wouldn’t dare violate her, is one that our society desperately needs.
Because this demonstrates that loss of sexual modesty does not imply a loss of sexual agency. And this very agency is the difference between objectification and empowerment of a woman.
An ‘item girl’ is therefore the exact opposite of an item. She’s someone who is willing and able to express not only sexual prowess, but also sexual desire and consent.
Yet, our society insists on seeing it differently. We insist on slut-slandering and berating the very woman that has got our hands inside our pants.
We insist on fetishising the passive woman. The obedient ‘Abala Nari’ who hasn’t got a shred of promiscuity or aggression or pro-activeness in her. The ‘heroine’ of the film (another misnomer, a euphemistic one, that too) who’s often no more than a sidekick or a love interest of the primary male protagonist.
I don’t for a second believe that sending out a positive social message is what film makers intend to do through item numbers. But a positive social message is one of the externalities.
A positive externality that seems unwelcome in a negative society.”
I wish these arguments were true, but they suffer from the major fallacy that they fail to recognise that the promise of early sex positive feminism has been hijacked by a male-dominated media culture. It is problematic that we live in a world where the discourse around ostensibly sexually assertive and liberated women is crafted by men to suit the delusional fantasies of men in the market for sexual consumption.
I would most certainly have immense respect for a real life Savita Bhabhi, but the comic book version is wank material (created by men, for men) rather than inspiring sex positive feminism.
It therefore ought not to surprise us that the Savita Bhabhis and the item girls of this world all seem to be women that espouse the same virtues of titillation, sexual indiscretion (with respect to consent) and a horniness for subjugation that all men wish they had access to. It ought not to surprise us, that in India and abroad, all female sexual imagery seems to be dominated by a fictional ideal of a hypersexualised woman - size zero, but somehow curvy; tight, but not muscular; tall, but not taller than the man; hairless everywhere other than her head; white skin, but with a light tan. These aren’t ideals of sexual empowerment because they don’t speak to most women, or worse, they tell them what to look like if they want sexual appreciation. In Western countries where this sexual content is pervasive and overwhelming, we see an increase in demand for expensive (and sometimes risky & invasive) procedures such as labioplasty and breast implants. India, of course, has to add a tinge of not-so-post-colonial desi-ness to this vomit-inducing misogyny by attempting to literally whitewash women’s vaginas with a vaginal fairness cream because presumably now, men want to stick it where the sun DOES shine.
But seriously, how do we get the sun to shine on women’s vaginas? And on their sexuality? Their own voices in this regard, have been in the dark for too long. How can we stop oscillating between extremes of de-sexualisation and hyper-sexualisation and ultimately reach a world where female sexuality is treated similar to male sexuality- as an important one of many human characteristics such as intellect, character, athleticism, artistic identity?
Having more women controlling the content doesn’t help, as Ariel Levy points out in Female Chauvinist Pigs. Ultimately, there exists a demand for a certain kind of sexualised product, and profit motivated film makers, advertisers, and pornographers are likely to meet that demand, regardless of their gender. Most people are not Lena Dunham. Transforming the demand seems to be the only solution.
Teach kids early on to be gender neutral and sex positive and I’m certain they will grow up to be a more discerning and less gender disproportionate market for sexualised content.
This can be done through sex education that’s actually sensible and sensitive, and encourages girls and boys to explore and understand their own bodies and desires (masturbate!) rather than just being a basic course on reproductive biology. Gender studies curricula that are being proposed in Indian schools ought to focus on sexuality and issues such as consent, such as mutual pleasure, et cetera, so that porn movies are not the first place where adolescents get ‘enlightened’ about sex. Vital to this would be to change the language and discourse around virginity. The word ‘virginity’ (which itself means purity, or a lack of corruption) creates negative connotations around those who lose it.
Segregating bathrooms on the basis of gender is not only exclusionary and discriminatory against people outside of the gender binary, but it also promotes gender insularity between men and women, affecting their notions, images, and ideals about the sexuality and aesthetics of the opposite gender. India isn’t quite here yet, but certain other countries might be, and we ought to work in this direction. This might seem trivial but can go a long way in having both genders empathise with each other, as well as rid things like menstruation, nudity, and sexuality of the taboo status that society has assigned to it.
This is likely to lead to more women being in touch with their bodies, and therefore their desires. This is likely to lead to fewer women restraining themselves from consuming sexualised content out of shame or fear. This is likely to lead to oppressive, gender-normative depictions of sexuality being less palatable to women (who presently are forced to internalise a lot of the misogyny) and to men, who are likely to have desires that are not predicated on subjugation of the opposite gender. Fewer Robin Thickes, more Lena Dunhams. Good.
Because the problem with ‘objectification of women’ in the media isn’t that its objectification, but that it’s mostly only of women. The more gender-neutral sexualised content becomes, the more pluralistic it’s likely to become and the closer we will get to a world where sexuality is just another human characteristic that isn’t taboo. British Feminist Pornographer, Anna Arrowsmith believes that porn democratises sex and provides something for every sexual desire. I hope the growing percentage of female porn consumers means she is correct.
Sexual counter cultures exist in the LGBTQ realm. Heterosexuality hasn’t been able to provide women an exit option from an oppressive mainstream culture because heterosexual women (by virtue of being heterosexual) require heterosexual men to opt out of this culture along with them, and create whatever conception of alternative sexuality that those individuals see fit (sexual hipsters, we can call them). Heterosexual men presently do not do this, because the sexual culture has placed them in a position of power.
Time to change the position, and change the power. It’s time to reclaim female sexuality.
Words: Ritvik Chauhan
[Ritvik Bucky Chauhan, the Firebreathing Feminist, is a 20-something IITian from Bombay and one half of the only ever Indian team to make the knockout stage of the World University Debating Championships. He’s pro-gay, pro-sex, pro-marijuana, and any combination thereof. You can find more of his writings on his blog FireBreathingFeminist]
