Becky Blab

This article takes a look into the problems for women that continue to plague Indian society. It addresses the idea of female role models–while there’s a president and other female leaders to look up to, those who are most emulated, according to the author, are the soap opera and Bollywood drama queens and the ‘brainless sex goddess’,

whose freedom is expressed purely in her ability to show as much breast, leg and midriff as she can. This sex goddess won’t question tradition - because she can’t be bothered, because it will affect her marriage chances, or because she simply does not possess the power to think. “Freedom” is increasingly defined as the ability to show skin or smoke and drink in public. When women here talk about individual freedom - as opposed to the collective freedom of equal opportunities in education and at work - the freedom they tend to be thinking of is the freedom to be constantly sexy.

I’m not too sure about this ’sex goddess’ portrayal; maybe because I’m not living in Delhi or Mumbai? But it sounds a bit like the same backlash in the US against the ‘girls gone wild’ depiction of feminism. However I do think that a collective consciousness of women’s subjugation is lacking, and the passage below gets into detail why this might be the case:

Indian feminism was and is largely unconcerned with western, feminist ideas of birth control, sexual freedom or opposing the patriarchal family. As yet, the movement has failed to develop an Indian definition of women’s freedom, or create meaningful debates on sexuality, family or professional choices. No wonder, then, that many women are happy to accept role models who are beautiful, thoughtless beings.

The failure of the women’s movement is partly down to the speed of its early successes, and the speed with which its activists were absorbed into the establishment - which led to a backlash. Among India’s middle-class and lower-middle-class women, feminists are perceived to be unpopular conference-hoppers or political climbers. There is a reluctance to take “women’s issues”, when they are described as such, seriously. India’s official feminists talk about dowries, not sexual revolution, and feminism has ceased to be a living force among women.

It’s true that in an era where more women than ever before are holding paid, professional jobs, women’s freedom as such has hardly come to the fore–even where opportunities to live in a city, away from the family, present themselves, single women remain under the watchful, over-protective eyes of their landlords or guest-house caretakers. And while every now and again in the media some article crops up about couples who choose not to have children, this option seems not to have crossed most women’s minds. Forget sharing household chores–the maids and nannies seem to have that covered for those who can afford it.

And I can empathise that the f-word is a touchy subject, in my personal experience. And the lack of seriousness or committment to ‘women’s issues’. As for mention of the ’sexual revolution’, sex is still a taboo topic among most people (in spite of the sex goddess?), but credit must be given to the media who do at least try broach the topic. I would not conclude though, as the author does, that feminism here is dead.