Martin Amis , one of my favourite novelists, has written this interesting new novel on the 'sexual revolution' titled Pregnant Widow of 1970's England. It is written in the usual Martin Amis style being satirical, prose driven coupled with unconventional jargons. The novel is about the 'sexual egalitarianism' that started in the 70's in the backdrop of the hippie movement along with other movements which lead to sort of overthrowing the conventional sexual mores in which female 'freedom' was restrained. The revolution started in a sense with the basic tenet of loosing 'virginity' before marriage to show sort of 50/50 equality between both the sexes. The story which revolves around Keith Nearing and his adventures with a group of females in the early 1970's at an Italian Mansion, depicts sort of 'female evolution' and the 'sexual freedom' that female protagonist were into.
I was thinking whether there has been a sort of 'sexual revolution' in India, where sort of 50/50 exists.Frankly, I don't think so, apart from 'hush hush' college mating in certain parts of urban India (mainly the metros), things have definitely not reached 50/50. I realize movies such as 'monsoon wedding' sort of still define most of the urban educated landscape and feminism is nowhere much to be seen apart from academic rhetoric. Amis in Pregnant Widow showed that Brit females pushed the boundaries to attain egalitarianism but I realize Indian females due to complex social structures that still prevail in India (due to parental control) but also due to lack of 'experimentation' on their part have a long was to go to even come out of the 'conventional ' mores to even come close to 50/50 which Amis argues about and even thinks that Europeans have also still not attained that equality.
No comments:
Post a Comment