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Women's sexuality is a completely taboo topic in our country - how dare they have desires and enjoy sex? Then they must be #AskingForIt!
Women’s sexuality is a completely taboo topic in our country – how dare they have desires and enjoy sex? Then they must be #AskingForIt!
Sex is a taboo topic to be discussed by Indians. It’s an irony that we are the world’s second most populated country and yet shy away from an emotion as normal as sex. Parents never discuss it, censor board shies away, moral police decide the do’s and don’ts. A movie like Lipstick Under My Burkha still doesn’t release.
Women, of course, cannot express or discuss their sexuality freely at any age! Their ‘character’ is judged based on their sexual preferences or needs. Right from the time when a girl is young, she is taught that no boy should touch her but the parents never clearly state what touch! A girl is wary even if a boy gives her a peck, a hug, or taps her shoulder! Clearly, the difference between good touch and bad touch is not stated!
A girl is encouraged to remain virgin so that her future husband ‘loves and respects’ her because of her ‘clean character’! Ridiculous, isn’t it? Nobody really bothers about the virginity of the boy!
Even today, in this 21st Century, most women still cannot express their sexual fantasies and desires freely, even to their husbands, lest they be branded as sluts! A teenage boy’s hormones can be raging, but not a girl’s! A man can discuss his sexcapades freely and boast about it and be labelled as a stud, but what if the woman does the same?
A widow or a divorcee is not supposed to have any sexual desire. She is expected to remain chaste and celibate to prove that she is of ‘good character’, to prove her loyalty. A mother cannot have normal sexual desires; she is supposed to be a ‘role model’ for her children. It doesn’t matter that she is single-handedly struggling and working to give her kids a good life and imparting them with good values.
Marital rape is not even considered a crime. A woman has no right over her own body. A husband is the master of her body.
When will our country stop equating a woman’s character with her sexuality and sexual desires? Is that a character is all about? Why the hypocrisy? Why not judge the men using the same parameters of virginity, premarital sex, extramarital sex, one night stands or it is believed that only men have ‘sexual hormones’ and women don’t!
One more area where gender equality has still a long way to go.
Image source: freestockphotos
I am a travel expert by profession and an avid blogger by passion. Parenting and women's issues are something that are close to my heart and I blog a lot about them. read more...
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Trigger Warning: This contains descriptions of mental health trauma and suicide, and may be triggering for survivors.
Author’s note: The language and phraseology used are not the author’s words but the terms and narrative popularly used for people living with mental illnesses, and may feel non-inclusive. It is merely for putting our point across better.
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