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Mammary Pietism



If you are a cynic, you find life amusing most of the time.  Cynics have the unique knack for looking around for a coffin when they smell flowers.  I live in Kerala where cynicism is cultivated as a highly sophisticated form of art.  At dinner time the Malayalam news channels will bring you, without exception, the most cynical commentaries on the day’s events.  Kerala has probably the highest number of trolls on the various social media.  It is good that people like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah do not know Malayalam; otherwise the cynical TV programmes and the media trolls would have given them multiple sclerosis long ago. 

Grihalakshmi Cover
The latest target of such cynicism in Kerala is a Malayalam magazine, Grihalakshmi, which gave the photo of a breastfeeding woman on its cover with the caption: Mothers tell Kerala: Don’t stare, we want to breastfeed (our babies). The woman in the picture is Gilu Joseph, who is a model, writer, actor and poet. Her views are presented in the magazine and they belong to a feminist who argues for the rights of women to walk about freely even at night, to travel in buses at night without a male escort, to sit on a beach and breastfeed her baby, and so on.  Personally I feel women should have the same rights as men.  Why should women be deprived of any delight that men enjoy?

I don’t understand why the menfolk in Kerala took such exception to the cover picture?  Ok, I agree that such a picture was not required to campaign for women’s right to breastfeed their children wherever they are comfortable doing so.  Maybe, the magazine was just cashing in on the picture, as some trolls suggested.  Maybe, Gilu loves the fame derived from the controversy.  So what?  Don’t we all love such things: cash and fame?

The latest sex survey of India Today says that 1/3 of the men and ¼ of the women in Indian offices have extramarital sex at their workplace or related to the work. Premarital sex by teenagers is also on the rise at a rate that will shock conservative people.  I’m not an advocate of any of these indulgences and I don’t think such acts and practices will do any good to anyone.  But when people begin to question a picture used in a campaign, the cynic in me looks around for pedestals to elevate such people.  Why don’t they look at issues that really matter? 

Hypocrisy is one of the deep-rooted cultural values of India.  Scratch the Indian moralist and perversions will bleed out.  Look at the mounting number of assaults on women.  Even infant girls are not spared by the perverts. 

The real problem is not with Grihalakshmi or Gilu.  The real problem is with Indian men who have double standards when it comes to sex and sexuality.  The men should learn to fling the mask of pietism and learn to accept women as fellow human beings who deserve all the respect that men demand.

A Da Vinci painting of Mother Mary with Jesus

 
An Indian painting of Krishna with Yashoda



Comments

  1. Jyotirmoy SarkarMarch 2, 2018 at 8:01 AM

    Very logical analysis explaining some truths and facts of the society.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CRDMarch 2, 2018 at 8:40 AM

    Great subject to deal with.

    I'm glad you chose to post the images of Mother Mary and Yashoda. It will kinda drive home the point that how we look at things is completely in our heads.

    Cheers,
    CRD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 2, 2018 at 9:50 AM

      I've always thought that a woman breastfeeding an infant is one of the most spiritual and beautiful images. No wonder so many artists have been inspired by it.

      Delete
  3. www.mohanmekap.comMarch 2, 2018 at 3:37 PM

    Nice article and the subject is great but I was reading news snippets, perhaps the case was registered against the magazine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 2, 2018 at 3:50 PM

      Yes, a case has been registered unfortunately. There's no dearth of hypocrites or plain idiots or shrewd opportunists.

      Delete

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