We live in a time where we are exposed to sexual content in some way or the other every day. Now, I am not one of those prudes who think sex is ‘impure’ or something that should be hushed into the shadows. In fact, if this prude-ist behaviour is on one side of the spectrum, we seem to be in the opposite end, where there is no longer any boundary and everything is related to sex.
There does not pass a single day when one don’t hear an advertisement, a joke, a movie, a book, etc that does not explicitly relate to sex in some way or the other. And why not? Sex Sells. Ask the Advertising and Marketing Industry, and they will tell you the same thing. Is there any other reason Christian Grey and his Fifty Shades went on to break records? No wonder you see skimpily clad women in advertisements for everything from deodorants to automobiles.
Now, including sex as a part of your script is not an issue. It’s a part of human life. But including it solely to market your product is absurd. Even more absurd are those scenes where the very act seems forced as though it doesn’t belong there; like it has been pushed in to add ‘masala’. Personally, it has a lot to do with evolution, I think. The serious undertone of sex seems to spark the underlying carnal desires in humans, which helps create an affinity/attraction/brand loyalty. And that makes sense because that is what sex does. We, as humans, are supposed to have the intellectual ability to choose a partner and stick to them. Sex is not just a medium of procreation, but it is an art- an art of connection, of love, trust and yes, desire and passion. But, the latest fad of including sex and the use of it everywhere seems more similar to an ‘animalistic’ view of life- and no, not in a kinky way. Off late, even feminism seems only as a guise for the same.
We, as a society should know something is wrong the minute we see 10-year-old's touch up their gloss while waiting for the flight to take off. A 10-year-old!! I didn’t know what gloss was when I was 10. This is a subdued yet clear message we are sending. Looks are what matter. Your HQ (Hotness Quotient) is what matters, not your IQ. Your personality, intellect, ability are all secondary; sexiness is what is most imperative. As a message, that, is harmful, because it leads to a society which mocks intellectuals (Read: Geeks) and one that knows more about the ‘latest bombshells’ than the Nobel Laureates. We are already there. We are already at the beginning of the end.
At times like this, I get very depressed at the thought of what the future of human civilization will be. We need to understand - the system of evolution is brutal; it does not listen to us. If it realises that the brains are no longer used, it may just disappear soon enough, just like the tails did. And that, my friends, would be a loss we would never be able to regret, for we would be too busy monkey-ing about in our lives. We would lose all that sets us apart from other animals and will be the first race ever to devolve - back to chimps. It’s simple really.
When all blood flows down south, it seems more and more difficult to fuel the work in the North. (Yes, I did it too. I made an off- hand sex joke too. Don’t mind the hypocrisy; it was purely to prove a point.)
Written by Shreya Srinivasan
A person of varied interests, with a possible ADHD that went unnoticed as a child. A gypsy philosopher looking for her place and space in the world. Admittedly a little odd at first, but then, you have to be odd to be number one.