The Land of Chastity
South Asia has to be called the land of chastity. The sexual activity of women is taken very seriously here and is one of the major topics of conversation-albeit indirectly. The whole of the Indian subcontinent is inordinately concerned over the issue, so much so that at the slightest hint of a woman having sex outside of the socially allowed boundary, boom and she's killed by the social guardians, the spidermen and supermen of these countries, who focus not on crime, but on the sexual proclivities of individuals and how to maintain the boundaries that have been set by their tribal predecessors several thousand years ago.
You would not believe how many times have I been asked this question. "Why don't you concern yourself with the sexual life of your mother and your sister?"
The form wasn't the same, it was couched in the language of honour, which is more appropriately captured by the word 'izzat' and the masculine/feminine definitions of the word are differently put so that for a male- having sex with as many girls as he can is something that everyone can be proud about, while for a woman it can mean death. The males have to keep the females of their family/quasi tribe in check, while they go about fuc*&ing those women they can.
This irks me. The entire concept does. Bollywood of 90's is replete with instances of Indians going abroad and loosing their morality/culture ( used interchangeably) where strangely morality doesn't mean ethics in life, goodness, kindness... but only the following of the existing norms (even if they are superstitions) and protecting the chastity( especially virginity) of women. You can be mother Teresa, but the moment you have sex outside of marriage ( only for females), you are a slut and then anyone can rape you( because you are a free slut).
Such implications mean that both men and women are mentally trapped in the sort of the social box created. When you are fixated on sex, keep on devising secret ways of obtaining it and at the same time, abhor even it's mention in public life, you create a sort of an impossible trinity. It means that mass behavorial psychosis takes place and public behaviour/debates/attitude revolves around this highly repressed yet highly enticing topic.
One of the biggest reasons for the kind of underdevelopment, poverty and crime in INDIAN SUBCONTINENT can be directly attributed to this line of thought.
In the name of culture - the primeval tribal culture persists, where caste replaces the tribal identity. Here too violence is used to suppress individuals and keep the leaders powerful. But what instrument can be used to acheive obedience?
The chief instrument used is sexuality and it's counterpart religion.
HOW IT HAPPENS?
How what happens? Control that's what the game is about. Control is done by the people themselves. It happens via a very simple process, wherein the religious norms defines the groups to which the people belong. Earlier it used to regulate dress, diet, job- and everything else. Even now it's a potent influencer of these things. The rich and the very poor are largely excluded from control essentially because they cannot be controlled by the mob.
To maintain social order, sexuality is regulated strictly. This ensures that the in-group remains the same always and a constant situation of hostility remains with the outgroup. Hindus and muslims are the major antagonist in this situation but fear not, even if these two big groups weren't there, there were plenty of smaller groups to fight themselves to death... various castes, professions, every sort of division exists in the Indian subcontinent.
SO you have the groups and you have religion regulating their formation and keeping them in order. The purpose of having more groups is that some one can LEAD THEM and thus become an ELITE. In a hierarchal society, this is the most important part - to become the leader of some group/ any group. The powerful have a great incentive of doing so, for then they are spared of doing any work/ are free of social rules/ can pass on this advantage to their children.
Anyhow, the motive of restricting sexuality in the name of ethics and morals is to create a powerful PSYCHIC REPRESSION. This violent force is then transformed into SLAVISH OBEDIENCE OF THE LEADERS. How is that done?
When the basic need of a person is repressed, they cannot mature into an integrated wholesome person. It makes them stuck at a lower level development cycle- the higher needs of esteem/self actualisation are never met and the immature citizens are like putty in the hands of leaders to be used to their advantage without ever encountering any resistance!!!
It's all the more the most effective way of repressing people, for almost everyone feels the need to have sex due to their evolutionary characteristics. By repressing it, you make people PERMANENTLY GUILTY and such people are liable to be lacking in self confidence in their own ability to challenge the dictatorial leaders.
The hidden aspect of it leads to violence against women. I mean if you don't allow people to become mature and then make sex the forbidden fruit and eulogise those who conquer the women, you are bound to have some loons going over. The silliest part is that it didn't have to be sex at all. It could have been any thing - tabooing certain foods, tabooing certain exercises ...what not?
Cleverness lies in carefully weaving honour-culture-morality-sex in a single piece of psychic cloth that envelops everyone from childhood to death.
I want to tear this cloth open, but TRUTH and RIGHT WRONG are essentially principles of the social acceptability i.e.. you believe in what the majority say is right. I know that the entire concept is severely fun&*d up, but then if everyone around you violently believe in a principle, you are forced to stand back and mould yourself according to the social rights and wrongs.....
South Asia has to be called the land of chastity. The sexual activity of women is taken very seriously here and is one of the major topics of conversation-albeit indirectly. The whole of the Indian subcontinent is inordinately concerned over the issue, so much so that at the slightest hint of a woman having sex outside of the socially allowed boundary, boom and she's killed by the social guardians, the spidermen and supermen of these countries, who focus not on crime, but on the sexual proclivities of individuals and how to maintain the boundaries that have been set by their tribal predecessors several thousand years ago.
You would not believe how many times have I been asked this question. "Why don't you concern yourself with the sexual life of your mother and your sister?"
The form wasn't the same, it was couched in the language of honour, which is more appropriately captured by the word 'izzat' and the masculine/feminine definitions of the word are differently put so that for a male- having sex with as many girls as he can is something that everyone can be proud about, while for a woman it can mean death. The males have to keep the females of their family/quasi tribe in check, while they go about fuc*&ing those women they can.
This irks me. The entire concept does. Bollywood of 90's is replete with instances of Indians going abroad and loosing their morality/culture ( used interchangeably) where strangely morality doesn't mean ethics in life, goodness, kindness... but only the following of the existing norms (even if they are superstitions) and protecting the chastity( especially virginity) of women. You can be mother Teresa, but the moment you have sex outside of marriage ( only for females), you are a slut and then anyone can rape you( because you are a free slut).
Such implications mean that both men and women are mentally trapped in the sort of the social box created. When you are fixated on sex, keep on devising secret ways of obtaining it and at the same time, abhor even it's mention in public life, you create a sort of an impossible trinity. It means that mass behavorial psychosis takes place and public behaviour/debates/attitude revolves around this highly repressed yet highly enticing topic.
One of the biggest reasons for the kind of underdevelopment, poverty and crime in INDIAN SUBCONTINENT can be directly attributed to this line of thought.
In the name of culture - the primeval tribal culture persists, where caste replaces the tribal identity. Here too violence is used to suppress individuals and keep the leaders powerful. But what instrument can be used to acheive obedience?
The chief instrument used is sexuality and it's counterpart religion.
HOW IT HAPPENS?
How what happens? Control that's what the game is about. Control is done by the people themselves. It happens via a very simple process, wherein the religious norms defines the groups to which the people belong. Earlier it used to regulate dress, diet, job- and everything else. Even now it's a potent influencer of these things. The rich and the very poor are largely excluded from control essentially because they cannot be controlled by the mob.
To maintain social order, sexuality is regulated strictly. This ensures that the in-group remains the same always and a constant situation of hostility remains with the outgroup. Hindus and muslims are the major antagonist in this situation but fear not, even if these two big groups weren't there, there were plenty of smaller groups to fight themselves to death... various castes, professions, every sort of division exists in the Indian subcontinent.
SO you have the groups and you have religion regulating their formation and keeping them in order. The purpose of having more groups is that some one can LEAD THEM and thus become an ELITE. In a hierarchal society, this is the most important part - to become the leader of some group/ any group. The powerful have a great incentive of doing so, for then they are spared of doing any work/ are free of social rules/ can pass on this advantage to their children.
Anyhow, the motive of restricting sexuality in the name of ethics and morals is to create a powerful PSYCHIC REPRESSION. This violent force is then transformed into SLAVISH OBEDIENCE OF THE LEADERS. How is that done?
When the basic need of a person is repressed, they cannot mature into an integrated wholesome person. It makes them stuck at a lower level development cycle- the higher needs of esteem/self actualisation are never met and the immature citizens are like putty in the hands of leaders to be used to their advantage without ever encountering any resistance!!!
It's all the more the most effective way of repressing people, for almost everyone feels the need to have sex due to their evolutionary characteristics. By repressing it, you make people PERMANENTLY GUILTY and such people are liable to be lacking in self confidence in their own ability to challenge the dictatorial leaders.
The hidden aspect of it leads to violence against women. I mean if you don't allow people to become mature and then make sex the forbidden fruit and eulogise those who conquer the women, you are bound to have some loons going over. The silliest part is that it didn't have to be sex at all. It could have been any thing - tabooing certain foods, tabooing certain exercises ...what not?
Cleverness lies in carefully weaving honour-culture-morality-sex in a single piece of psychic cloth that envelops everyone from childhood to death.
I want to tear this cloth open, but TRUTH and RIGHT WRONG are essentially principles of the social acceptability i.e.. you believe in what the majority say is right. I know that the entire concept is severely fun&*d up, but then if everyone around you violently believe in a principle, you are forced to stand back and mould yourself according to the social rights and wrongs.....
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