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Three things happened over the last couple of month�s that led up to this post. The first was the release of the movie Dirty Picture. The second was the entry of Sunny Leone into the �house of the big boss.� The third was a series of blog posts and television talk shows about the safety of Indian women in our metropolitan cities. It triggered several lines of thinking that I felt are worth reflecting upon. What message does the use of the word dirty in Dirty Picture pass on to the generation who are not yet old enough to be allowed into the theater to watch it? How does the average Indian family explain the concept of an adult entertainer over prime time television dinner on the weekend? Why do we as a society feel so surprised at rape and other
gender crimes against women?
The morality and values of a society are passed on from generation to generation, and each generation accepts what it finds relevant and discards what no longer works and then passes it on. Even though we are from the land of Vatsayana, we have perpetuated a culture of sexual repression. There are two aspects to this repression � the first is a denial of female sexuality and the second is a don�t-speak rule about sex as a natural healthy urge. As a result, most Indians grow up learning about sex from their peers, from pornography, or from abuse, either as a victim or as a perpetrator. Much of this learning is erroneous and based on myths and stereotypes.
Silk Smitha was not the first Indian woman to openly flaunt her sexuality. Screen goddesses from the early days of cinema have done it, but with due deference to the menfolk, knowing that their sexuality was only to please or placate the male. Silk was the first to be openly sexual for the pleasure it brought her, often with what bordered on disregard or contempt for the male. While the moral police will be quick to point out that it does not make her a cultural role model, her cult status cannot be explained away to large percentages of submissive males alone. In many ways, she, along with other actresses and celebrities, freed the Indian woman to express herself as a person with intimacy needs and a right to sexual expression. This is in direct contradiction to the jejune diet our male-dominated society would have us on, and hence, in order to get the masses into the theaters without raising anybody�s hackles, the film is named Dirty Picture.
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