THE BIG BOOBY TRAP!

we watch in wonder ( is that it?) at the growing fame and popularity of our very own 'jat' version of pamela anderson ...mallika sherawat!...whether we like it or not miss sherawat has got exactly what she wanted ... everyone talking about her !.. from the farmer chewing 'ganna' in his small plot of land in karnal, to college- going folk , to corporate bigwigs and even femenists!.. ...yes so thats what this post is about .. a few weeks back in one of our sessions in the feminism course i take , we ended up having a rather interesting discussion on mallika sherawat ...

the bunch of were divided on the issue ...actually not equally divided there were just two of us who were .. well whats the word for it .... not-to happy with miss sherawat.. the rest however seemed damned kicked about her! now i am not some damned prude ( 'hint' to smone!!) .. nor am i your right wing , saffron clothed ,hoarse voiced, protector of indian culture !!....my argument simply is that i think that its a little sad that in an attempt for a woman to be 'modern', 'liberated' and to lay claim to her own sexuality she must do so by way of objectifing herself....

..... the idea that several of my friends brought out was that mallika in the time and age of hypocrites wasnt one .. so you didnt hear her making statements that she kissed 17 times coz the 'scene demanded it' .. she did it for plain pure titillation ...and that if she felt like wearing clothes that revealed her 'assets'.. ( i use this for lack of a better word.. my vocabulary is weak i must admit!) it was her decision, and it reflected how even a girl from harayana could have modern ideals!...

okie first off .. kudos to mallika for being blunt . really i appreciate that.. much more than any of this hypocritical crap you have to put up with otherwise. but i have major problems with the rest of the argument ....is it then suggesting that i would be 'modern' if i roam around in a bikini even if i spend the rest of the day lapping up ekta kapoor's retrograde crap on television?!...can i lay claim to my sexuality only if i wear spagetti tops or low necks or mini skirts that reveal my finely shaped legs?!

once again this is not to suggest that i have anything against people who choose to wear these clothes .. my problem is if this is viewed as the only means of reclaiming your own life , of asserting yourself , your identity and as part of that your sexuality then we are all deluding ourselves.. how would you then explain arundhati roy ,brinda karat and the likes ? my own feminism prof .. possibly the most liberated person i have ever met in my life is never very 'modern' in her dressing.

its the ideas and your thinking that matters .. what you wear may or may not be an expression of that

....mallika sherawat in her movies ( i havent seen any .. relying on 2nd hand info here!) has apparently done nothing remotely modern ( in the true sense of the word) . she may dress so, but lets see her do something or say something that is not the rhetoric of some sexist script writer! what saddens me is that she has reduced herself on and off screen to nothing more than an object of lust and fancy. she chose her own route to success(?)....and that was her decision .. its just that i think i would have liked it much better if she could remain sexually liberated without having to bog herself down by these labels of 'sex object' that actually fit the bill... is it then any wonder that she is never ever taken seriously....