One may make an apparently paradoxical statement: woman’s body has been her bane as much as it has been a challenge to all the patriarchy driven societies, ancient and modern.Woman’s body has two important dimensions; it’s a source of erotic pleasure for man as well as a vital part of procreation process that ensures the continuity of human race. Erotic pleasure in a traditional society is treated as nimiety of passions that is frowned upon and falls in private domain but it is what man craves for most irrespective of class, colour and creed. Matter of the fact is that it’s private only to the extent to which it is not shared socially with people in general. It’s no longer a private matter among the close circles of men; they love to share with their companions the luscious secrets of women they have amorous relationships with. It usually turns out to be the story of a predator that poses as companion that cleverly woos its prey in an apparently non-violent manner to commit another kind of violence permitted by tradition. Violence hidden in the socially evolved nature of man woman relationship does not surface or is not perceived to have surfaced unless it’s blatant and outlandishly dressed up.

Sex for pleasure is forbidden by almost all the religions treating carnal desire as a sin. There may be few exceptions such as ancient India where religious code(s) did not look upon sexual pleasure as sin. That’s the reason we find the oldest treatises (Sutras and Shastras) on erotica in India as well as breathtaking sexual scenes wrought in an architectural wonder in Ajanta and Lora. In Indian/sub continental mythology we don’t see genesis or origins of human life laced with a sense of guilt as we find in the Middle Eastern religions. Life on earth is neither a “fall”nor degradation of human status in Indian cosmology. There are orders and cults that celebrate the natural joy of the flesh without sense of guilt. Female figure is worshiped as symbol of fertility that perpetuates life in an unending cycle of birth and rebirth. That in no way implies the gender equality or absence of patriarchal structures that have historically forced woman to live at a level which has stymied woman’s growth as human to the great disadvantage of societal development.

All societies, ancient and contemporary, are marked by certain common features: patriarchal norms and gender inequality. The roots of patriarchy and gender inequality lie buried in physiological differences between male and female bodies. Free from the constraints of procreation male body literally developed its muscle that made female body look even more fragile in comparative terms.

It’s always easier to repress and oppress the fragile, especially if they are on your watch. Most of men while believing that sex is primarily for procreation tend to indulge, given half a chance, in sex for pleasure. When this practice degenerates into money making venture, the lesser man becomes a pimp and woman a prostitute. And the respectable man who buys sex remains respectable after doing what is absolutely disreputable. Enjoying comforts offered by woman for money or as an expression of love is a feather in man’s cap. Whether it is sex for procreation or pleasure, woman’s body has to be controlled or possessed. Procreation leads to the building of family and family leads to the question of property that it possesses and has to bequeath. But bequeath to whom? Who is more entitled to it than offspring? So woman’s body has to be protected in order to prevent the property falling into the hand of others outside the family. The ruse used is the notion of the so-called “family honour”. The notion of “family honour” rarely includes honour of the family that is not one’s own, the family of the woman one is in liaison with. What it all means is that woman has “honour” in terms of her connection with her family ruled by a patriarch. She has no “honour” per se. She is “honourable” as long as she is willing to be accepted as a piece of property in the family auction house.

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Sex for pleasure though nothing new assumes an umbra filled dimension in a consumer society driven by capitalism which puts great premium on woman’s body, its botoxed shape and contours and thus turns the pleasures of the flesh into a fetish. Transaction seems to have replaced human relationship that has embedded in it a joyful erotic element but is much more than mere sex.

The real choice for contemporary woman is not being a prude or femme fatale. Former and the latter both play into hands of reactionary social forces by being a conformist or a commodity. If woman desires to humanise herself, she must come out of cocoon of conformism and resist the deceptive attraction of commoditisation of female flesh. But the process is not hazard free. Saying no to conformism means woman risks fierce retaliation that can make her an outcast, even kill her. Saying yes to commoditisation means entering another glittering web of male intrigue which by robbing woman of her human dignity throws her into a social bin that hides what has been discarded after being used.

The most important thing denied to woman is her right over her body. Woman will not be fully human as long as the control over her body remains male’s prerogative. Woman so far has not been able to be a free agent but struggle against male’s prerogative continues. Bold young women asserting their right over their bodies are maimed and killed in thousands every year in pursuit of a dream that doesn’t replicate the past, the past that refuses to be the past in a society where ruling clique defends gender inequality and class distinction as heritage. — soofi01@hotmail.com