To
top it up, human greed is
allowing big compaines to
capitalise on this new trend.
That's genes, not consumerism,
they say...Really ?
Thongs
and training bras. Most women
will wear these
items at some point in their
lives, but not usually at the
same time. Yet, today’s Indian
culture has transformed this
image
into some kind of distorted
norm. By apeing the west, today
in our society, image is
everything and that
“everything”
is being sold as sex. Our country
has managed to glorify sex
to the point where you can’t
ever escape it. Whether it
be an orgasmic hair shampoo,
seductive body spray,
or the KAANTA
LAGA" girl
dancing around
in little clothing,
adult
innuendos and
sexual suggestions
are thrown at us from
all sides. And
then we ask,
why are so many kids having
sex...?
Sexuality
has taken many twists and turns
over the decades. I don’t really
know how we went from the ’60s
and ‘70s, when sex was seen as
rebellion against the woes of
conformity, to the ‘80s with the
AIDS scare, to the ‘90s, when
sex was becoming more and more
experimental to the year 2004,
when sexuality has taken the shape
of a smiling thirteen year old.
When did we take that sharp turn
off of the path of progression
and somehow end up with raunchy
videos and slimy marketing tactics?
There are many factors that could
possibly add to the “kids having
sex” phenomenon, such as family
life, socio-economic background,
and peer influence. In India,
with pressure on the middle class,
many families have two parents
working. The parents can’t always
monitor their child’s every move.
“I think that parenting has something
to do with it, but you can’t lock
your kids in a bubble,” says Anila,
a mother of two. “You want them
to be exposed to what’s going
on in their world so you have
to let them know, if you’re going
to take the risk of having sex,
you have to take the responsibility.”
According to research on the web,
the average age in early 1960's
for the first time of sexual intercourse
was 21 years. Today, it has dropped
to mere 16. Infact research says
that the age group of 12-25 have
the heightest disposable income
in the country.
It’s
the double standard that children
are supposed to look and
act as adults and adults are supposed
to look like young teenagers that’s
creating a confusing mindset for
people in our society. “But when
you’re older, you become less desirable
in the eye of society,” says twenty
four year old Puja.
By no means is sexuality a
bad
thing;
however,
seeing international teen stars
on cable, dressed in revealing
apparel is no weirder
than seeing
a thirteen-year old bend over,
only to expose her diamond-studded
thong top that says “flirt.” Not
to miss the "Silver Navel
Pin"
so sought after by teens in India
today.
Unfortunately,
kids are constantly the innocent
targets and have been for many
years. Companies are creating
a false sense of maturity through
one’s sexuality. “The media targets
impressionable minds. Kids are
easily impressed and can’t always
discern reality,” says Anuradha
Menon, a mother of two. With kids,
much of the issue has to do with
rebellion. “It’s put in your head
from such a young age that you
shouldn’t be having sex and that
it’s something so special that
you should wait for. The media
know that the kids are going to
want to know what’s so special
about it and try it as soon as
they can. They know what they’re
getting at,” says Meenu.
Another
factor that plays into youth sex
is the idea of “instant pleasure.”
It seems as though the world has
become a giant drive thru. Cable
TV, the internet, advertising
firms, multinationals, privatisation
and the new call-centre culture
prevalent, are additional factors.
We
spend half our days sitting in
our cars ordering junk food,
processing money, using credit
cards, or picking up medicine,
because, in some way or another,
walking has become everybody’s
latest hassle and time (or lack
thereof) seems to haunt us in our
sleep. Our culture is so consumed
with time limits, deadlines, and
daily to-do lists that the phrase,
“stop to smell the roses” has become
nothing more than a rarely glanced
at refrigerator magnet. We have
become a society that is so rushed
and so pushed to “be faster, be
better, be quicker!” that things
such as love seem to have no place
in our lives. “Kids and even adults
don’t have long attention spans
anymore. Everything is in little
clips of life, and people think
that’s how life is,” says Anjul.
The
question is when did the idea
of love and sex become separate?
Love takes months, sometimes even
years, but sex takes only a few
hours, minutes, or, in some cases,
seconds. It’s the idea that quick
sex will lead to quick love and
instant gratification, and the
good old Indian apers of the west,
go about marketing this product
beautifully.
Our culture of commercialized everything
has managed to take something as
wonderfully simple as sex and love
and turn it into a money-making
monster. The reality is that, the
younger the client, the more money
there is to be made.
Movies
and Cable TV promoting the TEEN
AGE, although geared toward a
younger crowd really promote an
adult message. “To a twelve-year
old, they may think sex is an
important part of daily life,
and without it, they’re lacking,”
says Vandana. Companies who are
using sex to market their products
toward the India youth culture
are, in actuality, feeding off
impressionable children by creating
an adult ideology that many kids
don’t understand. The shorter
and more revealing the garment,
the more fashionable and tempting
to the teenagers. I think you
need to have everybody working
together, including Bollywood
and the media, to let people know
it’s cool to wear normal blue
jeans and a decent T-shirt and
that you don’t need to pluck out
your pubic hairs to wear them
or show your midriff with a tattoo
or silver piercing.
Our culture is saturated with
sex, lurid and lucid innuendos.
The mere idea of sex is so “in-your-face”
that the only way to avoid it
is to walk around with your eyes
shut and your ears plugged. Because
this issue seems to invade almost
every aspect of our lives, there
should be no surprise to the rise
in children having sex at younger
and younger ages. It’s all a cycle.
If the media targets kids by using
sex to sell their product, and
the kids buy into it, then the
cycle continues. Some may call
this a loss of innocence. The
problem is that for children,
being sexy and having sex is their
one-way ticket toward what they
think is maturity and adulthood.
Yes, sex sells, but when exactly
is it appropriate to use it? And
at what age is there a sense of
understanding and responsibility?
At the rate our Indian society
is going, the next thing you know,
there will be see-though thongs
and muscle tees at Greater kailash
and Vasant Vihar Stores. We, as
socially and morally upright citizens,
create a furore over pornography,
vulgarity in movies and other
media, but fail to recognise the
explicit message given in advertisments.
What is our moral obligation and
responsibilty as parents? Is is
only to conceive and produce offspring
and bend to their every whim in
the guise of love? Or, are we
also responsible to make them
well grounded, socially responsible
human beings? That is the question.
