Little may the National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson have imagined her off-the-cuff remark, that it is cool for a woman to be called “sexy,” would get temperatures soaring, not just in an already hot Jaipur, but even in the rest of India still not totally out of the chill.
Moderates may argue that it was merely a slip of the tongue and not meant to be taken out of context. But the fact is that the slip is showing. Loud and clear. And it has the moral police and feminist forces gunning for her, saying that her “sexy” statement shows that she is not fit to be in her shoes. If the morality mavens earlier happened to invite pink chaddis with their hard-line stance against new-age women, the NCW head seems to have invited the pink slip for the so-called “liberal” posture she is claimed to have adopted on the babes of a “happening” India.
In all fairness, all the NCW chief may have been doing was to sound fashionable and “with the times”. In a market-propelled socio-cultural syntax, “sexy” would hardly seem a blasphemous adjective. In an age where item songs like “Shiela ki jawani ... I'm too sexy for you” not only articulate the aspirations of thousands of wannabe Katrinas, but also proliferate popular vocabulary with amazing ease, this “sexy” catchphrase has indeed become a metaphor, a synonym for a woman's attractiveness and desirability. And even her marketability.
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Why else would we have fashion and film glossies falling all over each other to be the first to carry a public poll voting a Katrina, Kareena or Deepika as the “hottest” or “sexiest” Indian woman?
Marketable
Certainly, for those whose business it is to sell a “sexy” image or for whom a “sexy” branding is the only way to business, this is a sought-after and prized tag. Why else would a Mallika or a Malaika gleefully court and sport the “sexy” tag in their public and professional appearances?
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But therein lies the thin dividing line of when, where and by whom it is cool for a woman to be called “hot” and “sexy”.
It may be cool for a Poonam Pandey to herself sell a hot image to be in the business, like posting a “sexy” picture to grab attention on greeting the Prime Minister on his Twitter debut or posing bare for the boys in blue. But is it cool for any woman, be it a plain Pooja or a hot Poonam, to be accosted on the street by a rank stranger and be called “sexy” without her consent and when the male carries ill-intent?
Models and actors don't make for role models in this feminist public debate, the critics may argue.
True. Those for whom the “commodification” of their bodies is their business may wear sexist tags like a second skin. But for the common woman such labels, if she indeed sports or even covets them, come with certain riders.
Crucial rider
Consent and context. Just as a male's physical contact with a female is deemed lawful only if it is consensual, a verbal connect may also be considered legitimate only if it entails the consent of the woman concerned. A gender-specific vocabulary may make it to popular lingo but it acquires legitimacy as a lexicon only in a consensual context.
A reel “Chameli” may find it cool to endorse the “chikni” label, but a real Champa or Chameli may mind it.