Make Love And Talk About It; Stereotyping Won”t Get Us Anywhere

By Nishita Gupta:

Hey you! Yes, you right there. Not you, lady, please continue looking through the classics. Pick 1984, you’d know how the government can be a voyeur. Yes you, the one browsing through the Mills and Boon books here. Aren’t you the one who was shaming a girl for having sex the other day? Oh, of course, because you read stories of others having sex, you’re better than her. Because you think it is private. But how can reading about the act of making love be private? Even if it’s intercourse between two (or multiple!) characters of a book, you do realize you’re reading the writer’s thoughts. His/her fantasy! Isn’t this literarily voyeuristic?

And you, the one with the abovementioned lovely lady. Not you woman! You keep up the eye contest with the guy wearing the muscle hugging V-neck T-shirt, checking out the car magazines, ‘cause that makes him look oh-so-macho! The third one. Yes you, in the bright red deep neck kurti. I love the pattern on it. The zigzag reminds of vaginas. And how different that is, because mostly when I look around, there’re only phallic shaped objects. Anyway, so Lady in Red, don’t you please yourself secretly? Don’t you like to push your fingers through your hole, thinking of the one standing with you checking out the one displaying his hegemonic masculinity to the world? But it’s a secret, it’s private, so it’s okay. But you were the one who told the M and B lady about the slut, weren’t you? Imagine someone talking about your personal activities and calling you bad names. How about that?

And My Lady, judging the breathing book by its cover and trying to win the stare game, you’re sexually active. You enjoy your sex life like one should. You have no qualms of discussing which guy you took to your bed the last night and where, or which new positions you tried. Then why did you, out of your girlies, not hesitate even once to call her a slut because she spoke of her own story? Oh, I get it. You talk to your friends and that is private. But how? Lady in Red filled you guys up with the news of another this time, the next time the topic of discussion could be you! Now picture someone calling you a slut for being confident of your sexuality! How does that feel?

And you Sir, you called your ex-girlfriend a whore because she slept with another guy after she broke up with you. Don’t tell me you’re checking My Lady out with no images of her naked body flashing through your mind. What about the girl you had sex with a week back? Why are you whoring around my friend, why? Oh, because you’re a guy and it’s cool. And a girl can either be pure or a whore!

Why is sex a taboo? Isn’t it how we all were born? It isn’t like our parents sat down and pieced together legos in their bedroom (or elsewhere, you wild ones you) after marriage and spoke a few verses to make their piece come alive. Our fathers put their dicks into our mothers’ vaginas and thrust a few times until he came inside her. Tada! Plausible pregnancy! Tada, nine months or so, and baby you were born! So, that’s the process, you knew it, right. We all knew it. But, I am such a bad girl because I wrote it down and forced you to read it. I have been such a naughty girl lately, don’t you think?

So why can’t you listen to Queen and just get down and make love or if you can’t do that, listen to the Beatles and let it be!