Am sitting at the car service centre in Hyderabad and there is this young mother and her utterly cute little daughter sitting across from me. The omnipresent television screen is set to “Gemini Music” and initially I didn’t notice the songs that came up. Suddenly I looked up from the work I was doing on the laptop and was embarrassed by the scene being shown – am 47 years old and no prude, but I cringed looking at the pelvic thrusts and the girls passing their hands over their chests suggestively and their dresses leaving nothing to imagination, tastelessly ! A few minutes later a 90’s song came up – badly dressed actors and the dance moves were like a school PT class. Now watching Chiranjeevi dancing without a single pelvic thrust ! He is badly dressed but a great dancer. The point is – we seem to believe that skimpily clad women with things popping out here and there is being stylish … nude can be stylish if the person remaining nude is comfortable and not trying to get eyeballs.
Why do movies today make songs that are overly sexual ? Its almost like the bedroom scene is being shot in an outdoor location. Its actually sick watching these songs on screen and with children or parents in the room. Freedom of expression is all very well and giving the audience what they need is also fine, but this is cheap titillation and then we worry about rapes increasing and young girls being bulimic. We objectify women and unhealthily thin models are preferred… children ape their elders, parents. So it has to start from the older generation, having a healthy body image and leaving the titillation to porn movies. Please have the actors dress glamorously, let them wear beautiful clothes, thats perfectly fine, but dishing out cheap hairline-porn in a song is just gross.
Here’s another subtle shift that is being effected. A few weeks back Times Now proudly announced tying up with “VICE” media … really ? You have vice media ? I thought porn was vice media, maybe am naive. I also grew up thinking vice is something wrong, not to be indulged in but it looks like its a name now for a thriving business. Can someone explain that to a 5 year old kid as the kid is forming his or her values ? While you explain VICE media also explain “Moviegasm” …. I am unable to think of any explanation that seems reasonable. An orgasmic experience for a common man is usually during the sexual act, and except for Osho, no other spiritual master has even used the word in their discourses. But Osho is an enlightened master of enlightened masters… how can you and I explain Moviegasm to a young child without getting the child to misunderstand and misidentify the experience that he or she will have many many years later ??
This is where lines blur between what should be allowed as freedom of expression and what probably needs social censor. A child who has been physically abused has scars for a lifetime and if some adult’s freedom of expression even indirectly causes the abuse, its unacceptable.
There is a reason why you have different stages of life – childhood, teenage, youth, adulthood and old age … you are to get exposure to different things at each of these stages so that your maturity continuum is fulfilled. If a child gets exposed to what an adult should have exposure to, the impact is terrible and the consequences are unhealthy. In a country where censorship doesn’t work effectively, can some adults give shape to their freedom of expression differently ? In a way that doesn’t harm their young audience. A creative person is also part of the society and influences it, so has to take responsibility for their actions.
p.s If anyone can effectively explain Moviegasm and VICE media to a 5 year old, please post in the comments !! Am serious.
This is why I don’t watch television or have one in the house. It disgusts me, yet we have federal employees whose job is to search the internet looking for sex offenders and child pornography. Who protects you from your protectors? As a taxpayer, I resent the entire sleazy mindset of those who would exploit sex for profit. At least we have the choice to turn the television off. Remember in George Orwell’s 1984, this was illegal.
If I had been at that car dealer, I would have asked them to change the channel or turn the TV off. I’m notorious for doing that kind of thing in places where I can’t get away from the blaring mind pollution.
Katharine, well said. I also usually get obnoxious channels to be changed or the TV switched off or smokers to get out of non-smoking places … guess it didn’t occur to me this time. I started writing about it and didn’t focus on stopping it right away.
I only do it when I’m in the right mood. Other times, it seems like too much work, so I just sit passively, like everyone else, wishing someone else would take charge, for a change.
In an ideal world, that Mama would have stood up for her child’s right not to be exposed, but too few people have the courage to make waves.
If you set a mature example for frightened young women to follow, then next time they might try it your way. The child would learn something, too, about what adults consider tolerable.
When I’m considering making a scene (in a friendly way, of course), I try to decide whether I’m out of line. The tipping point comes when I can’t stand it anymore. I need to take action or leave.
When other victims thank me for speaking up, it makes my day.