| Room 524-B | Cultural Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Time: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM |
Modern Indian women: Re-discovering sexuality.
Biswas, Ranjita*,1, 1 Trans World Feature Service, Calcutta/Kolkata, West Bengal, India
ABSTRACT- INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES : Recent surveys among urban Indian women show that they are less reluctant to talk about their bodies and sexual needs. They also do not hesitate discussing about the importance of sexual compatibility in a relationship. A recent study on female sexuality among married women in Punjab showed that 62% of the respondents (20-40 ages) had significantly higher sexual knowledge, 66% admitted pleasure from sexual experience, and 96% considered sex as an important aspect of life. This is in contrast to the general image of Indian women being submissive partners in marriages, content to fit in the socially-condoned role as mothers. However, this assertion of sexual identity is not entirely new. Rather, it is a re-discovery of a sexuality long submerged in conservatism. In folk performing arts, as also in sophisticated literature, sculpture etc. from the past, sexuality of women was well-recognized. The songs and dances performed by women during Bihu, the spring festival of Assam in the North-East, are highly evocative of sexual desire. This is in evidence among other ethnic communities too. True, as anthropologists point out, they were connected with the fertility cult of agrarian societies, but they also displayed a healthy acceptance of sexuality of women. Later-day Puritanism, especially during the Colonial period, imbibed certain Victorian values among the urban educated. Folk performances like Bihu were even shunned by the class in Assam as it supposed to be too vulgar. RESULTS: Interestingly, if today urban educated Indian women are shedding inhibitions about their physical desires, it has a lot to do with the influence of western culture. The feminism movement in country in the 80s, education, exposure to the western media, and the growing economic independence are major influences contributing to a new self-confidence that challenges traditional notions of womanhood. CONCLUSION : The emerging self-confidence about sexuality is perhaps confined to a small section of women, but in a country where public outcry against a film on lesbianism (Fire) can result in vandalism in theatres, and choosing spouses by own accord is still frowned upon by families, it is an important development indeed.
Key words: women, sexuality, re-discovery, modernity, self-confidence