Is India's view of sexual content as taboo causing bigger problems?

News Type: Opinion — Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:13 PM EDT

india-sex-content, india-sex-taboo, protests-against-gere-in-india

An article was released today titled, "Protestors in India Burn Gere Effigies" .

This article explains how Richard Gere was at a recent HIV/AIDS event in New Delhi, India, and after coming across an actress he knew, Shilpa Shetty, he repeatedly kissed her on the cheek and hand. In a country where public displays of affection are largely frowned upon, extremists "burn[ed] effigies of Gere with sticks and set fire to glamorous shots of Shetty ... [and] chanted 'Down with Shilpa Shetty!'"

Being a fan of Bollywood movies, I recieved an article a couple months ago regarding high profile actress Aishwarya Rai and actor Hrithik Roshan who had a kissing scene in their recent movie. A lawyer who claimed that kissing in movies was "conveying vulgarity in society", actually filed a lawsuit against them--for kissing!

Even further back to 1996, India was asked to host a Miss World Pageant, where protestors who weren't even related to the participants, set themselves on fire because of the "disgrace" and "shame" a women's pageant brought to their people.

My question is, is this wanting of censorship contributing to "India [as] a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced or bonded labor and commercial sexual exploitation" ( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/India-2.htm)?

India is the second largest populated country in the world, so someone's having sex. Being educated or exposed to any form of sexual content can cause some extreme reactions. Are these reactions the reason why so many people are going to brothels and taking advantage of little children who have been sold for the sole purpose of fulfilling a sexual desire that cannot properly be talked about?

I think that by making the topic so inappropriate, people are behaving in horrific ways. To be so extremely resistant toward an issue only causes people to want to explore it more. Without being educated and maybe being too afraid to talk about sex, people are going about it in detestable ways.

This is definitely not true of the whole population. It the mostly the right-wing nationalists. But , maybe instead of focusing on kissing used as a welcoming embrace or entertainment value, these extremists should focus on how to prevent the fact that "Traffickers are selling children in India for amounts that are often lower than the cost of animals and most of them end up working as laborers or commercial sex workers, children are purchased like buffaloes" ( http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=8157&pst=857272).

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{"commentId":648159,"authorDomain":"mineko"}

mineko

This is interesting, I really don't know a whole lot about Indian culture or society, but I understand that in many cultures public displays of sexuality are extremely taboo and that American society is particularly open in regards to sex and sexual activity. I agree that sexual repression can have harmful effects on an individual, and I can only imagine what the consequences would be for an entire society that represses their sexuality. Maybe the sexual repression is directly related to India's booming population. It's sort of like society's self-constructed control factor.

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#1 - Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:51 PM EDT

{"commentId":650557,"authorDomain":"abadis"}

Sean A

I remember hearing about this story and I just thought before going to a different country you should understand the culture, and I had never thought about the effect that sexual repression can have. I've seen stories about the child sex trade and it is horrible. I can see how sexual repression can lead to an explosion in a negative direction. I know this is nothing like that, but it's like watching the kid from your high-school who has never had a drop of alcohol get dropped into college and have their first drink and after that they seem to explode into an alcoholic. I'm not sure what can be in India to curb this problem, but it does sound like an issue that should be addressed.

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#2 - Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:15 PM EDT

{"commentId":651908,"authorDomain":"msk7"}

Matt Kirchner

Culture is extremely important in every society. Look at America's rating system (the MPAA). This not only looks at language and what you see, but it gives ratings based on theme as well. I don't see a difference between America's MPAA or FCC and the cultural reaction in India. Remember the Super Bowl Half Time Show with the famous nipple? The country went insane and demanded the FCC do their jobs. It is no different than what is happening in India. The fact is Gere should have learned something about the culture before going to India before he started making out in public. For shame.

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#3 - Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:16 PM EDT

{"commentId":652535,"authorDomain":"lisah7"}

lisah7

I think the Janet Jackson incident is not comparable to India's reactions to the examples I gave. Setting statutes on fire...people setting themselves on fire! These actions are a little more extreme than "asking the FCC to do their jobs." I agree Gere should have learned about the culture, but "the culture" is home to Bollywood in which two people were sued for kissing on screen. I don't agree that India's situation "is no different" than the SuperBowl Half Time Show.

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#4 - Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:53 PM EDT

{"commentId":666383,"authorDomain":"Diaspar"}

Diaspar

India is the second largest populated country in the world, so someone's having sex.

Hahaha, that's a terrific line.

I think you're onto something when you mention the 'right wing'. Indian youth aren't fazed by expressions of sexuality within their culture. That can be attributed to the increasing westernisation of India and greater adoption of western liberal values, though the older generations are no doubt disgusted by much of what goes on. With regards to the right wing though, we're talking about the BJP and their concept of 'hinduness', you can take a very conservative bent on Hinduism, Islam as well as other religions and it's that sort of thing that enforces hostility to sexuality.

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#5 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:03 PM EDT

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LISAH7

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Is India's view of sexual content as taboo causing bigger problems?

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