Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
Swetha Menon and Body Sanctity
In Kerala, blessed as this Indian state is with strikingly beautiful water scenery, many breath- taking boat races are conducted in different parts when the rain gods fill its enchantingly beautiful water bodies during the south west monsoon, and as usual the coastal municipal town of Kollam(Quilon) conducted its annual boat race on 1st Nov. 2013. It is customary that some crowd pulling and popular figure is invited as chief guest to grace the occasion and this time the organizers decided to supplement scenic beauty with a good dose filmy glamour. The invitee was Swetha Menon a film and serial actress cum TV anchor, lately of fame for the gimmick of having filmed and exhibited her primiparous child delivery live for the benefit of movie going people. She arrived, clapped waved cheered ,and pleasantly left, and having got home, as only women can explain, kicked back to send a bomb shell alleging that a senior Congress Member of Parliament Shri Peethambara Kurup( nearing 70)who chaperoned her in the function had molested her while jostling in the crowd. In spite of the fact that TV footage showed only some jerky rubbing of shoulders with her by him, perhaps in his anxiety for standing shoulder to shoulder with Malluwood in the ensuing general elections!.it was a bolt from the blue for an already infighting and debilitate Congress, and manna from heaven for the media and a very handy hatchet for the cutting left. Both the latter went to town, the savory news spilling over the Ghats and getting splashed all over the Indian media. The left smelled blood and sharpened the teeth while the media smacked its lips with pleasure. The back to the wall and anguished MP protested and professed his innocence sprinkling it with a dash of apology and empathy. Soon the waves inundated cyber world and the Facebook. Pushed hard, the govt. announced an inquiry and the police went ahead for preparation of a FIR. And in late evening on Sunday came the news that the holier than Swetha Menon had backtracked and decided not to push the matter further making much of a speech of apology by the M.P. in the TV. Obviously Swetha took a bite too big to chew. The Congress youth brigade had meanwhile promised to make life and career miserable for her.
The Swetha Menon episode raises some thoughts as well as questions. Why did it happen that there was no unanimous condemnation of the incident, but on the contrary people took sides? Normally if it becomes clear that a hapless woman was publicly humiliated there would have been a chorus of public outcry and indignation. But in Swetha's case people took sides. And in the end, it appears to me that it was she who was severely mauled and bruised more, much more, than her alleged detractor, - so much to the disappointment of his political opponents who had immediately smelled pay- dirt and were preparing to dig in and go to town on that.
We react, as discerning people, differently in varying contexts. No template of behavior with a universal fit can determine human conduct in differing contexts. It is, if any thing, a broad code of conduct envisaging a set of alternatives. These in their turn are riveted much like in a serial, to the projected nature of the characters of the actors, other personae involved and also the orchestration, which again are influenced drastically by the antecedents of the central actors. Imagine if it were someone like Manju Warrier or Kavya Madhavan bearing the brunt of unwanted attention and intimacy, then whoever had the audacity of inflicting that and infringing the honor of their bodies would have been hauled over the burning coal by the public without serious dissent. Of course, an offense is an offence irrespective of the character of the victim, I agree and also uphold the dictum; but to me it is perfectly natural and expected that the reactions will diverge when the alleged victim is controversial and the alleged villain is one beyond reproach till then. To confound the matter further, the script comes on rather hazy and confusing, leaving much space for all kinds of interpretations and allegations of conspiracy based on the contradictions that are galore. Like Swetha's visible behavior till the end, which is one of enjoying the occasion to the core and happily going back, courteously taking leave and departing pleasantly. No distraught face, suppressed indignation and storming out. This left room for unsuspecting and incredulous people to entertain the suggestion that her subsequent volte- face to throw up insinuations was an after-thought and a put on, either for publicity which is life breath for actors, or that it was at the behest of vested interests. Or, to be more charitable to her, the reported antics of the unwanted unsolicited escorts of locals back on way to the car must have caused to blow up her ire to loom larger than life and to merge in to it the entire occasion. Women often excel in the process of imparting reality to their fears, and some times even to their desires.
A lesson Swetha might have learned, I hope, is that it is as much a crime as her allegations could have been, in the volatile public life of Kerala to besmirch the character and assassinate a career, especially a blameless one so far, of a senior man in public life on insufficient grounds, in this case, even if true, nothing more than any non-celebrity woman daily faces in our public transport. Not that those annoyances have to be tolerated, but usually they are these days controlled by a stern look and or warning. And least of all by a Swetha, who had nonchalantly carried out the ultimate exposure of body any woman can make or dreading to make ( it was not a call of duty) and one who now most unabashedly hugs or draws men to her body, wrapping arms around their shoulders and as seen once , even caressing the slightly protruding tummy of strangers, in TV shows. These days of woman empowerment and it's stringent laws there could be something like molestation by woman, and every politician is scared now that any determined woman can trample their reputation built assiduously over their entire life in one nightmarish moment.
Feminists and women in general who make shrill cries for gender equality should understand that a semblance of equality can be achieved only in some restricted fields like certain social and service sectors; in any case not in biology and psychology dependent sectors As far as the educated urban middle class is concerned, In India, legally gender equality, and recently with all the woman empowering laws, even an edge over the male gender have already been achieved. If the disparities persist it is largely due to the fact that our women have not yet freed themselves fully from their traditional mindset, and by their own volition, continue to be its prisoners. So here it remains mainly an issue of under utilization of avenues open to women and also one of subconscious desire to remain at the comfort level of patriarchal dependency and protection.. Men are prepared to lend them indulgence both in equality demand as well as my fair lady's coy dependency desire, but if they insist on carrying along dependency desire too then they should know that it will amount to legitimization of patriarchy. Mind you, it is the patriarchy that instilled a sense of differential sanctity of the body, woman's being vastly more sanctimonious than that of man. Here the patriarchy was only recognizing and obeying the matriarchal bidding of mother nature that the reproductive cost for and investment by the woman are far heavier than those of man. This is what makes the man a daring entrepreneur and woman a shy cautious capital.
If the women say gender equality embraces body sanctity then Swetha is as guilty of indiscriminate molestation in the past as much as the accused she put on the mat and almost on the dock.
Swetha Menon and Body Sanctity
In Kerala, blessed as this Indian state is with strikingly beautiful water scenery, many breath- taking boat races are conducted in different parts when the rain gods fill its enchantingly beautiful water bodies during the south west monsoon, and as usual the coastal municipal town of Kollam(Quilon) conducted its annual boat race on 1st Nov. 2013. It is customary that some crowd pulling and popular figure is invited as chief guest to grace the occasion and this time the organizers decided to supplement scenic beauty with a good dose filmy glamour. The invitee was Swetha Menon a film and serial actress cum TV anchor, lately of fame for the gimmick of having filmed and exhibited her primiparous child delivery live for the benefit of movie going people. She arrived, clapped waved cheered ,and pleasantly left, and having got home, as only women can explain, kicked back to send a bomb shell alleging that a senior Congress Member of Parliament Shri Peethambara Kurup( nearing 70)who chaperoned her in the function had molested her while jostling in the crowd. In spite of the fact that TV footage showed only some jerky rubbing of shoulders with her by him, perhaps in his anxiety for standing shoulder to shoulder with Malluwood in the ensuing general elections!.it was a bolt from the blue for an already infighting and debilitate Congress, and manna from heaven for the media and a very handy hatchet for the cutting left. Both the latter went to town, the savory news spilling over the Ghats and getting splashed all over the Indian media. The left smelled blood and sharpened the teeth while the media smacked its lips with pleasure. The back to the wall and anguished MP protested and professed his innocence sprinkling it with a dash of apology and empathy. Soon the waves inundated cyber world and the Facebook. Pushed hard, the govt. announced an inquiry and the police went ahead for preparation of a FIR. And in late evening on Sunday came the news that the holier than Swetha Menon had backtracked and decided not to push the matter further making much of a speech of apology by the M.P. in the TV. Obviously Swetha took a bite too big to chew. The Congress youth brigade had meanwhile promised to make life and career miserable for her.
The Swetha Menon episode raises some thoughts as well as questions. Why did it happen that there was no unanimous condemnation of the incident, but on the contrary people took sides? Normally if it becomes clear that a hapless woman was publicly humiliated there would have been a chorus of public outcry and indignation. But in Swetha's case people took sides. And in the end, it appears to me that it was she who was severely mauled and bruised more, much more, than her alleged detractor, - so much to the disappointment of his political opponents who had immediately smelled pay- dirt and were preparing to dig in and go to town on that.
We react, as discerning people, differently in varying contexts. No template of behavior with a universal fit can determine human conduct in differing contexts. It is, if any thing, a broad code of conduct envisaging a set of alternatives. These in their turn are riveted much like in a serial, to the projected nature of the characters of the actors, other personae involved and also the orchestration, which again are influenced drastically by the antecedents of the central actors. Imagine if it were someone like Manju Warrier or Kavya Madhavan bearing the brunt of unwanted attention and intimacy, then whoever had the audacity of inflicting that and infringing the honor of their bodies would have been hauled over the burning coal by the public without serious dissent. Of course, an offense is an offence irrespective of the character of the victim, I agree and also uphold the dictum; but to me it is perfectly natural and expected that the reactions will diverge when the alleged victim is controversial and the alleged villain is one beyond reproach till then. To confound the matter further, the script comes on rather hazy and confusing, leaving much space for all kinds of interpretations and allegations of conspiracy based on the contradictions that are galore. Like Swetha's visible behavior till the end, which is one of enjoying the occasion to the core and happily going back, courteously taking leave and departing pleasantly. No distraught face, suppressed indignation and storming out. This left room for unsuspecting and incredulous people to entertain the suggestion that her subsequent volte- face to throw up insinuations was an after-thought and a put on, either for publicity which is life breath for actors, or that it was at the behest of vested interests. Or, to be more charitable to her, the reported antics of the unwanted unsolicited escorts of locals back on way to the car must have caused to blow up her ire to loom larger than life and to merge in to it the entire occasion. Women often excel in the process of imparting reality to their fears, and some times even to their desires.
A lesson Swetha might have learned, I hope, is that it is as much a crime as her allegations could have been, in the volatile public life of Kerala to besmirch the character and assassinate a career, especially a blameless one so far, of a senior man in public life on insufficient grounds, in this case, even if true, nothing more than any non-celebrity woman daily faces in our public transport. Not that those annoyances have to be tolerated, but usually they are these days controlled by a stern look and or warning. And least of all by a Swetha, who had nonchalantly carried out the ultimate exposure of body any woman can make or dreading to make ( it was not a call of duty) and one who now most unabashedly hugs or draws men to her body, wrapping arms around their shoulders and as seen once , even caressing the slightly protruding tummy of strangers, in TV shows. These days of woman empowerment and it's stringent laws there could be something like molestation by woman, and every politician is scared now that any determined woman can trample their reputation built assiduously over their entire life in one nightmarish moment.
Feminists and women in general who make shrill cries for gender equality should understand that a semblance of equality can be achieved only in some restricted fields like certain social and service sectors; in any case not in biology and psychology dependent sectors As far as the educated urban middle class is concerned, In India, legally gender equality, and recently with all the woman empowering laws, even an edge over the male gender have already been achieved. If the disparities persist it is largely due to the fact that our women have not yet freed themselves fully from their traditional mindset, and by their own volition, continue to be its prisoners. So here it remains mainly an issue of under utilization of avenues open to women and also one of subconscious desire to remain at the comfort level of patriarchal dependency and protection.. Men are prepared to lend them indulgence both in equality demand as well as my fair lady's coy dependency desire, but if they insist on carrying along dependency desire too then they should know that it will amount to legitimization of patriarchy. Mind you, it is the patriarchy that instilled a sense of differential sanctity of the body, woman's being vastly more sanctimonious than that of man. Here the patriarchy was only recognizing and obeying the matriarchal bidding of mother nature that the reproductive cost for and investment by the woman are far heavier than those of man. This is what makes the man a daring entrepreneur and woman a shy cautious capital.
If the women say gender equality embraces body sanctity then Swetha is as guilty of indiscriminate molestation in the past as much as the accused she put on the mat and almost on the dock.
