Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
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...
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address