In today’s papers in Raipur there’s a harrowing tale. A gang run by a couple kidnaps young girls, has them raped, and convinces them that they have nowhere to go now. The girls, shamed, scared, and lonely, are put into prostitution.
It is horrifying that the couple has two daughters of their own, that they were able to use a hotel to keep them captive and that girls in early teens are not safe anymore, but to me the most infuriating part is how easy it is to convince the girls that they will not be accepted by their families. Such is the stigma of anything sexual in our society. In Masaan, its not the act of making love, or the psychological issues related to it that cause pain. All the pain is due to a threat of exposure. The shamefulness of sexuality.
What the central government has done in last couple of days is another step in the wrong direction. The state run ISPs have started blocking porn websites, and the porn ban is expected to spread to private ones soon. In a society with already struggling with a lack of sexual education, taboos on mixing of genders and massive repression, this will further the middle-easternization of India.
Ancient India wasn’t like this. It celebrated raas, celebrated Shakuntala by Kalidas, celebrated Arjun eloping with Subhadra, celebrated love and its expression in all myriad ways. The women were not asked to cover themselves up, and it was men who covered their heads, not women. Then came the invaders. From Middle East and later from Victorian England. The two most repressed societies ever. And we started equating sexual abstinence with morality. Abstinence was only for the Sanyasis, who renounce all pleasure. Why did we all become Sanyasis?
The irony is that England has shed its jaded Victorian ideas, but we still cling to the laws they made for us. We still ban homosexuality, and even sexual experimentation amongst the heterosexual. In the race to be the most Hindu ever, the state is becoming Abrahamic.
This is not about protecting children. That’s the responsibility of their parents, not of the state in general. This isn’t even about protecting the porn stars. That’s a legitimate task of the state but the state doesn’t do it. A blanket porn ban achieves nothing except pushing the industry to black market. And it makes the government claim a moral high stand.
Now we all know that porn is not simple. In India, the problem of revenge/boast porn is rampant. Guys shoot an encounter with or without permission and upload it for the world. This is a crime, and needs to be stopped. Sites with porn without consent or child pornography should be banned, of course. Unless they have a robust mechanism to identify and remove such content. But thats not the case here. No attempt is made to identify and target the right sites. Just a blanket porn ban.
To appease those who want to police the morality of others, we are making choice immoral. Porn ban does not solve any problem. In country after country, banning sexual entertainment doesn’t lead to lower sexual violence. The opposite in fact. And porn ban doesn’t even curb consumption. Pakistan is the largest consumer of porn in the world, despite the porn ban. And not safe for women, or for children.
There was a post recently about ISIS demanding sheep genitals to be covered up in a village in Syria because they were “exciting” some men. That’s where we end up if we keep covering up. That’s not the solution. Ancient India was no paragon of equality, but we’d do better to aim for that than the repressive, moralizing ideas we’ve imported from our invaders.
Let’s remove the stigma from sexuality. The stigma is the cause of more pain than sex alone could cause. Repression of sexuality imprisons and shames our women, and makes them vulnerable to exploitation
(Pictures: An illustration of Abhigyan Shakuntalam; A Photograph at an ancient temple in Rajim, Chhattisgarh by the author)
the issue in the background is something else than what all the gossip-mongering over the news is making it about.
(as someone had rightly written, ban or no ban, pornography can be no expression of/representative of ‘sexuality’ in the context of the article posted; a degenerate mutation/morph, more aptly).
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/10/how-does-porn-affect-women-nsfw/
Ironically, the gay version of youporn and a few other gay-exclusive porn sites are not blocked.
This is sort of a joke on the government itself. They banned homosexuality. They banned porn. But homosexual porn is still not blocked..
They only ban the stuff they know about or assume the majority of people would watch.
This is the most ridiculous thing I have seen. How would porn ban stop rapes ?
I am wondering in what kind of Hypothetical world are we living? Why do we want to run for easy things which are generaly wrong & do away with the right things which seems difficult for our own convenience.?
With context to the current issue. We all know & we have all seen enjoyed & liked porn since our college days. Since the internet revolution began apart from Email, Chat messengers Porn was the third most important thing that entered our lives. Today after couple of years more down the line i can see the craze & the drive for sex then in college days was huge for hormonal & biochemical reasons.
But lets not forget one thing that whenver we have watched porn we had that inner feeling of GUILT in us whcih may have slowly died away. 99% of the people had that deep inside which they never spoke but its a fact which need not be spoken but is to be understood.
Now SEX in India TRADITIONALLY is more of a holistic affair than animalistic & beastly. We consider sex as a way a technique for the UNION of two souls, for their merger in Unison with NATURE. Those moments of Ecstasy is what SAMADHI resembles some what. Besides the female energys system revolves more strongly around the sex centers as the feminine is more recptive while the masculine can altogether avoid sex & be celibate to achieve the Ultimate.
This is the basic essence of Kamasutra which is to go beyond duality of the body to unity of the soul, i.e. from Sex to Superconsciousness as said by OSHO. Besides in Spirituality the highest state of LOVE is mere existence as love and the lowest state of love invloves physical touch & hence body is required. Lust is the lowest form of love. So the ancient MAHA RAAS leelas of Krishna and the Gopis were more affairs on the spiritual plane wherein only the look or the company of the beloved would get them ecstasized, satisfied thoroughly there by making them dance in Joy & had nothing much to do with the physical contact leave apart SEX.
So all the temples depicting the Sex acts like the KHAJURAHO temples are actually an indicator showing that one should drop away all the thoughts of sex before entering the Garbha Grah (inner sanctum) & in no way meant to be a Sex maniac.
Porn is the byproduct of sexual repression, sexual dissatisfaction, sexual depravation, sexual frustation, Sexual inability, uncontrolled emotional sexual urges but definitely not necessity and shouldnt be encouraged. Its like one addicted to liquor is manufacturing liquor to sell it to people of his mental condition & you promote him to promote his addiction. As a matter of the fact you are not curing him of his mental sickness but aggravating the problem. Meditaion is one solution to this mental sickness.
Gay say is also a form of sexual repression no matter how hard people would object. The reason behind is you dont create a circle of energy in gay sex which is very much created with opp sexes thus leading to higher levels. Hence it is not considered unnatural.
Wonder how people who intend to be the torch bearers and fore front objectionists dont even have an IOTA of Spiritual knowledge, Indian culture & have mixed ideas of everything borrowed from every where & cooked with heir own logic & are serving the world.
For instance people these days believe that BOOZING is not bad if it doesnt hurt any one. Buddha says that this “Eat, drink, be merry” philosophy is sheer unconsciousness. And this unconscious state can create more and more misery for you. Unconsciousness is misery, so if your life is unconscious it is Misery. So any act which doesnt raise your consciousness like if you BOOZE, Watch PORN & watch too much TV (which are not part of your daily karma or your bread earning acts) etc are not going to raise our consciousness & hence in a way are SIN.
Some may also argue that what husband & wife do in a bedroom is then wrong if watching porn is not correct. but here one has to understand that Sex between husband and wife is a means for completion between each other & has no ugliness if done willingly. It can also lead to tremendous build up of energy for once spritual peak. Watching porn is a tranquilizer like boozing, drugs just running away from your current issue it has a doping effect. Meditation can give much better & permanent results if done daily & can help you over come this mental sickness.
So LOT OF SEREMONS out here but The MATTER of the FACT is no matter how hard you run from your own inner self you cannot escape. Spirituality is the only logical path for your escape by knowing thyself.
Besides hats off to the government for taking such a bold move hoping that the innocence of children might stay for longer time as compared to the present times. Hope some sense prevails & i believe the people opposing this PORN BAN will not show their children PORN as part of learning.
Its totally insane and ridiculous. I can’t understand how porn can benefit in increasing awareness about gender inequality and will eradicate social problems. One in his conscious state of mind can logically, morally or ethically say that porn is disastrous for the society. Its nothing but just consumption items which satisfies the thirst of sexually thirsty individuals who is just like pilotless planes and porn videos are just like the softwares which operate in autopilot mode. In the above article writer has not enlisted any benefits or how it benefit the society. He has just written that in some alienative manner it will improve thinking of the society and since the writer is saying its good for society that’s why it is good.
In fact almost all the rapists who has been arrested, in their confession they has accepted that they were incited by watching porn to such an extent that they could not control themselves. Though people having ideal view can argue on this also but anyhow its the reality. So while writing on such sensitive issues one should be very careful.