my Yoni Ki Baat 2010 accepted entry!
This is gonna be performed! Yes!
My yoni is still searching for a Bollywood heroine to emulate. Oh she thought she had found a goddess in Imran Khan's character's mother in Jaane Tu. It's too bad that
a. Naomi Wolf, the author of The Beauty Myth which we see Imran's mom reading, just abandoned everything she preached in the Beauty Myth to embrace the faux-minism of Helen Gurley Brown.
b. She wasn't actually the heroine.
c. Most importantly, she still got overtaken by her (dead!) husband with his ridiculous machismo.
My yoni wants to know, is this the best you can do, Bollywood? Where are the heroines whose humanity is fully realized and who don't exist to be conquered by a man? Where are the heroines who feel bona fide desire, rather than only to ignite the desires of (male!) others? And why the hell do they keep getting younger and younger while their men just get older and older?
And what in sweet Sarasvati's name is up with the leading men? What makes you think that these "heroes" can do anything good for my yoni? Why do they get away with not following restrictive ideals of youth and beauty that are over-enforced for the heroines?
The problem is, you see me the same way you see my yoni - passive; empty; an object for MALE feelings, not an agent with authentic feelings. What nonsense is this, yaar? I mean, maybe you could show something different from heroes who pursue and assault the innocent and properly unwilling heroines. You need to step the hell up, Bollywood. Unfortunately, I can't just tell you to follow the example of Hollywood, because there too, no means yes, yes means slutty, and "*I* want to, do you?" is nonexistent.
But perhaps you could beat Hollywood to the punch. What do you say? Perhaps an eco-feminist engineer who plays with her yonimani at least once a week. (Oh there's another thing, start acknowledging that the yoni contains a yonimani whose sole purpose is to feel the very desire that you systematically deny that aurat-kind can ever feel.) Maybe our heroine's eye is caught by her boss's son, and maybe you could make the boss a woman. And in our hero's and heroine's love scenes, there is no stalking or ravishing behavior on the part of the hero, no coquettery on the part of the heroine. Just two lovers expressing raw and honest feelings unmarred by sexist scripts. It's a start. I'd eventually like to see the day we have gay and lesbian heroes and heroines without the theatres getting burned down. But baby steps.
For now I'll settle for your heroines to be older and your heroes to be younger and for your heroes' moms to be MUCH older. My yoni and I are waiting.
My yoni is still searching for a Bollywood heroine to emulate. Oh she thought she had found a goddess in Imran Khan's character's mother in Jaane Tu. It's too bad that
a. Naomi Wolf, the author of The Beauty Myth which we see Imran's mom reading, just abandoned everything she preached in the Beauty Myth to embrace the faux-minism of Helen Gurley Brown.
b. She wasn't actually the heroine.
c. Most importantly, she still got overtaken by her (dead!) husband with his ridiculous machismo.
My yoni wants to know, is this the best you can do, Bollywood? Where are the heroines whose humanity is fully realized and who don't exist to be conquered by a man? Where are the heroines who feel bona fide desire, rather than only to ignite the desires of (male!) others? And why the hell do they keep getting younger and younger while their men just get older and older?
And what in sweet Sarasvati's name is up with the leading men? What makes you think that these "heroes" can do anything good for my yoni? Why do they get away with not following restrictive ideals of youth and beauty that are over-enforced for the heroines?
The problem is, you see me the same way you see my yoni - passive; empty; an object for MALE feelings, not an agent with authentic feelings. What nonsense is this, yaar? I mean, maybe you could show something different from heroes who pursue and assault the innocent and properly unwilling heroines. You need to step the hell up, Bollywood. Unfortunately, I can't just tell you to follow the example of Hollywood, because there too, no means yes, yes means slutty, and "*I* want to, do you?" is nonexistent.
But perhaps you could beat Hollywood to the punch. What do you say? Perhaps an eco-feminist engineer who plays with her yonimani at least once a week. (Oh there's another thing, start acknowledging that the yoni contains a yonimani whose sole purpose is to feel the very desire that you systematically deny that aurat-kind can ever feel.) Maybe our heroine's eye is caught by her boss's son, and maybe you could make the boss a woman. And in our hero's and heroine's love scenes, there is no stalking or ravishing behavior on the part of the hero, no coquettery on the part of the heroine. Just two lovers expressing raw and honest feelings unmarred by sexist scripts. It's a start. I'd eventually like to see the day we have gay and lesbian heroes and heroines without the theatres getting burned down. But baby steps.
For now I'll settle for your heroines to be older and your heroes to be younger and for your heroes' moms to be MUCH older. My yoni and I are waiting.