I feel a blood curdling rage as I read the phrases 'JNU sex scandal', 'JNU pornographic MMS' and the like. What is the scandal? That adults in India have sex? Or that two consenting adults had pre-marital sex? Were they 'caught' or 'involved' in some sort of criminal activity? Or did they record a clip and eventually sold it, thus rendering it pornographic content? Even after a closer inspection of the stories carried by the major leading newspapers in Delhi (The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu and The Hindustan Times), I fail to pick out a problematic area which would bring out a conflict and thus render this 'story' anything more than just an outcome of a flawed editorial policy.
For starters, it is highly imperative that we question exactly why this became news. Why was this piece carried as a front page story on the aforementioned newspapers when there were other more important things happening in the world? And we still label two consenting adults who have sex as 'perverts'?
I am incensed that people are speaking out against "degenerate morals of the students of this elite University who indulge in such filthy acts" (a comment on the The Indian Express website) and not questioning the very newspaper that brings the story to them. What about all those people who displayed a disgusting amount of perversion by trying to find the clip online? Oh but no, those are not the perverts. They are just by-products of a culture that is focussed on categorising sex as a purely biological act, a culture that seeks as much to dismiss all rational thought when it comes to sex, a culture that brands sex as 'immoral'. So let's do the needful. Let's do as the culture dictates. Let us participate in a mass ostracization programme. It is only fitting, after all!
I am angry. I am angry that I feel a sense of crumbling despair. I'm anxious. I know that somewhere, we are all party to the notion of constructing new boundaries, to the notion of easy invasion into our lives. The realisation that we all have effectively lost all privacy has hit home hard. It's not just about public portals any more. Anyone can take a picture, a video or an amorous conversation and put it up for the world to see. Everyone you know will read it. They will watch it. They will torture you, condemn you. And then they will label you. Put you in a sad little compartment that they have titled in the choicest of words. But they're never wrong. No, how could we even suggest that they could be? No, you're not a victim. You're the accused. You're the degenerate they 'fear'. They can get you expelled, they can get you shunned by your family, they will get you fired, they can rape you in the name of honour, they can successfully destroy whatever semblance of a normal life you have. They say you brought it upon yourself. They say you signed up for it. You want to maul them. But they've left you amputated.
I'm furious. I know I have a right to be. I urge you, too, to be angry.
I am incensed that people are speaking out against "degenerate morals of the students of this elite University who indulge in such filthy acts" (a comment on the The Indian Express website) and not questioning the very newspaper that brings the story to them. What about all those people who displayed a disgusting amount of perversion by trying to find the clip online? Oh but no, those are not the perverts. They are just by-products of a culture that is focussed on categorising sex as a purely biological act, a culture that seeks as much to dismiss all rational thought when it comes to sex, a culture that brands sex as 'immoral'. So let's do the needful. Let's do as the culture dictates. Let us participate in a mass ostracization programme. It is only fitting, after all!
I am angry. I am angry that I feel a sense of crumbling despair. I'm anxious. I know that somewhere, we are all party to the notion of constructing new boundaries, to the notion of easy invasion into our lives. The realisation that we all have effectively lost all privacy has hit home hard. It's not just about public portals any more. Anyone can take a picture, a video or an amorous conversation and put it up for the world to see. Everyone you know will read it. They will watch it. They will torture you, condemn you. And then they will label you. Put you in a sad little compartment that they have titled in the choicest of words. But they're never wrong. No, how could we even suggest that they could be? No, you're not a victim. You're the accused. You're the degenerate they 'fear'. They can get you expelled, they can get you shunned by your family, they will get you fired, they can rape you in the name of honour, they can successfully destroy whatever semblance of a normal life you have. They say you brought it upon yourself. They say you signed up for it. You want to maul them. But they've left you amputated.
I'm furious. I know I have a right to be. I urge you, too, to be angry.
7 comments:
I so totally agree with you.
Shun it when others do it in the name of heritage and culture. And what happens when you're back home? You go and have some sex. And then the so called morality doesn't bother you.
I dunno when will people start seeing sex normally. It isn't a bad thing to do.
Yeah, and I am indeed angry. Having sex for pleasure, with mutual agreement, that doesn't harm anyone else, on yet another boring college night, is certainly not as troublesome as is having sex to pile up the country with a hundred million people, amid poverty and illiteracy.
This is what I've been wondering ever since I read the news; even if indecent, what's illegal or immoral about it! And "indecency" was not the activity, but the circulation across the campus! The fuss is wrongly — and unnecessarily, too —directed.
Ananya, it's this refusal to look at sex as something that people could enjoy that bothers me most.
Tanay, Still angry!
It's like you're criticised if you get 'caught'. Many people who critisize others are seen indulging in such 'immoral' acts themselves. I'm so sick of those moral-brigade people.
And...
Things get worse if you happen to be a gay or bisexual and come out. You're (or should I say I am) seen to be a person of 'loose' moral.
Haresh, I find the terms 'caught' and 'immoral' themselves very problematic! Who decides what is immoral or not? Anyone can ostracise and torture you for being who you are. That's a tragedy.
Oops! This was my bday, not the best day to be angry on :p
Bull eye. The mindset has to change but I don't really foresee that. The media goes to any length just make it a breaking news and people have started looking at it as a crime but in fact it is just a natural biological thing, which EVERYONE does. Sad really. Your anger is justified.
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