Women...Now and Then.....

Santanu Saraswati

To Hidemi Aiko, the beautiful Japanese film star, it is always: “Men first and that is how it should be what nature intended.” The star of the well-known film—“Seven Days in Japan”, while touring Europe was simply shocked at the evidence she saw of women’s liberation in the continent. In Europe, she was amazed to know that it was always: “Ladies first”. In her country it was otherwise and that is what it should be, she reiterated.
Coming in the wake of women’s liberation movements sweeping the world, the impact of which is being felt even in the Orient, one wonders how this blunt statement advocating male superiority is going to be received by libbers as also by those who feel it is senseless to dispute the superiority of one sex over another.
There are two important factors to be considered. One, Japan is much more westernised than even Western countries. Secondly, a film actress used as she is to receiving all attention and pampering, especially from her countless male fans, is hardly expected to accept the supremacy of men. Evidently, none of these factors could make any difference to her who emphasised that women’s greatest plus point was to be “feminine” and “giving men care, comfort and pleasure”. The Japanese star went even further and said, “It is oriental custom for men to be superior and for women to be second-class citizens,” a statement which will never be accepted. (Ms Aiko should think twice in case she decides to come to India, more so after what happened in 1990 to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the famous Shah Banu case).
Admitting that in order to vie with men in almost all spheres of activities along with the craze to become ultra-females, women first, in the West, then in the East, too, might have lost their feminine grace, coyness and charm and much to the chagrin of their men-folks. (Just think of the case of Mrs Lorena Bobbet! She used her sharpened knife to teach her man a lesson for having sex every night against her wish.) It is true that women in the Oriental countries have by and large been neglected and ill treated owing to long standing prejudices. But it is too rash to make a comment that women are second-class citizens by choice. Has she not reigned like a queen in her home?
In Hindu pantheon, Durga is one of the most popular goddesses, and her creation takes place in the context of a cosmic crisis. The asuras were on the ascent, and they had become a threat to cosmic stability. The male gods were unable to contain and subdue them. A number of male gods having failed to subdue the demons led by Mahishasura assemble into a conclave and emitted their energies upon Uma or Parvati, the wife of Shiva, who became the warrior goddess, Durga, that is, the invincible.
Just few years ago, I had the privilege of going through an article published in a growing daily where it was written it’s no longer a girl’s background that count these days. The forefront is equally if not more important.
Women libbers in United States started advocating that if a man can walk bare-bodied in the open daylight, why can’t a woman? And they started business with bra burning. They advocate sex-less society and businesswoman like Mrs. Merzon started manufacturing custom-made bosoms. She, in her support of her trade, could quote the eminent musician who explained her interest in an unpromising but well-endowed student by singing: “It is not her Bach, I am interested in, but her Front.”
Mrs. Merzon, probably a Hemingway fan, divided womenfolk into the “haves” and the “have-nots” or to put it in another way, the “endowed” and “un-endowed”. And in her version, her business is to help the “have-nots” to become woman like Samantha Fox. So she is in favour of quoting---
“There was a young girl named Hoople,
Whose bosom was triple, not doople,
So she had one removed,
But it grew back improved,
And at present her Front is quadruple!”
So creating sustained illusion is the speciality of Mrs. Merzon. According to her, the men folk seemed to be all in favour of these aids to feminine architecture. Large parts of Mrs. Merzon’s clientele are men, particularly university students who repeatedly parted readily with hard cash to buy brassieres for their wives and girl friends. When their wives or girl friends are going to visit them, come in there and get build-up. Especially, if they are not Samantha Fox or her Indian counterpart Asha Sachdeva, who never required visiting Mrs. Merzon’s clinic, rather, their image made them all-time favourite among their countless male-fans only because of their Front.
Chez Merzon, who in dealing with problem bosoms and bosom secrets is careful not to use vulgar terms such as “gay-deceivers”, “falsies”, and “flats”, “Man-Chester’s”…. Probably these terms gained a large popularity especially after the American Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, wrote “The Glass Menagerie” which too could be cited as Merzon merchandise campaign story, in a negative way.
Laura Williams has remained unmarried because she is among the “have-nots” and her hypersensitive awareness of her “disability”. So when her brother brings a fellow student who also happens to be her school-hero, into the bargain-home to dinner, her mother intent on matchmaking dresses her daughter in all her fineries, complete with the “gay-deceivers”. Which is why, according to Mrs Merzon, the desired match could not be pulled off. For best result, Laura’s mother, felt Mrs. Merzon, should have come to salon, the pros in padding.
But whatever it may be, Mrs. Merzon’s concept of creating “falsies” has even touched the idol-makers at Kumartuli this year. It may sound blasphemous for the “Manubadis” but it is true. A recent survey done at Kumartuli reveals that most of the clientele are in favour of decorating the idols that are always “haves”. Even the organisers who hire eminent artists like Sanatan Dinda, Bhabotosh Sutar or even the new pass-outs from Government Art College and Shantiniketan’s Kala Bhawan, for their idols, are followers of Mrs. Merzon. We can’t take the names of our Goddess Durga or Lakshmi or even Saraswati in the list of the ‘have-nots’. Even the picture we draw of Urbasis like Rambha and Menoka, we love to see them as beautiful in their feminine possessions that never belong to the category of ‘have-nots’. In Hindu mythology, Lord Indra has been made famous for his love for endowed Urbasis.
Bosoms always played and important role in depicting the third end of life—Kama in Hindu mythology. Kama is pleasurable, sexual love, personified by the god Kama. In contrast to Kama, prema or prem refers to elevated love. The first image deals with the Goddess as an aspect of a deity that is androgynous and bisexual. Goddess-imagery does not mean the loss of the image of a male God, but rather completion of presently truncated anthropomorphic imagery. The Goddess is, secondly, imaged as both strong and beautiful at once. She encourages confidence because of Her strength without losing Her female character and beauty. Thirdly, the Goddess, by means of a strong symbolism of the coincidence of opposites, participates in and valorizes the round of birth and death. Fourthly, the Goddess, who is Mother, revalorises the metaphor of divine motherhood, without limiting women solely to the mother-role. She can do that because She is also-Her fifth basic image-patron of many life-pursuits-arts, learning, culture, and liberation. Finally, the Goddess and the androgynous, bisexual deity restore sexuality as a viable theological metaphor and thus aid us in becoming reconciled to and appreciating our embodied condition. Here endowments of Goddess play an important role in depicting how supreme they are and how beautiful are they that made them above human and equally important like their male counterparts in decision-making. Even Kalidas asked nothing from Goddess Saraswati, but to suck her bosoms, which finally helped him achieving the true knowledge of life.
Many traditional social scientists still hold to the analytical view that dichotomises magic and religion. By placing magic and religion in discrete categories we underdetermine the extent of women's space in religion and culture. In religion women were depicted as subordinate ritually and spiritually. In magic, things feminine were usually identified with evil and witchcraft. The paradigm of women's space transcends the traditional dichotomy of magic and religion in a way that enhances feminine attributes in magico-religious systems. Women are unique sources of supernatural power, which emanates from their sexuality and reproductive capacities. This study examines several categories of supernatural power that are uniquely feminine and help delimit the paradigm of space feminine or women's space in religion and culture. It takes the view that, as sources of supernatural power, women constitute a unique spiritual resource vital to religion and culture.
Even in Tantrashastra, bosoms and sexual aspects of Goddess has been given greater thrust in depicting the power and beauties of Goddess. Tantra is famous as the most sexually oriented of the Yogic approaches. While this can be traced to certain trends in traditional Tantra like the Vamachara and temples like Khajuraho, it is in the West that this vision of Tantra is most pronounced. In the West, by a Tantric teacher is usually meant one who teaches Tantric sex, what is largely a combination of a Tantric ritualistic yogic approach to sex along with the Kama Sutras and New Age psychology.
Western Tantric Yoga teachers are generally teachers of sexual yogas and may be sex therapists as well. Their claim is to make the experience of sex not only more sacred but also more enjoyable.
Of course, it is in Tantra that we find the most detailed worship of the Goddess, which naturally brings up the image of sex, particularly in this media age. Traditional Tantra is mainly part of the Shakti tradition, which is devoted to the Goddess in all her forms. Western Tantra is similarly part of a revival of the worship of the Goddess, which extends into pagan and indigenous traditions. This side of Tantra also has its place but is exaggerated.
Shakti is not simply about sex - which is but one aspect of cosmic energy particularly powerful in our embodied nature - it is about all the cosmic powers. The great forces of nature as lightning, sunlight and moonlight are also Shaktis, as are the powers of the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. The electromagnetic forces of the physical world and the love-wisdom powers of the psyche are also forms of Shakti. Shakti worship is not simply a worship of sex but an understanding of all these cosmic forces and their workings. Great Tantric can work with all the Shaktis of both the external and internal worlds.
We also find western Tantric gurus, who use Tantra for their own aims, playing on Tantric magical and sexual images. They tend to the approach that are found in traditional Tantra as well. Such unorthodox figures act in ways that are unpredictable, contradictory or even immoral. Being such a Tantric can be a catch all for doing whatever one wants and acting in as unusual and idiosyncratic manner as possible. It can put the guru above any ethical standard of behaviour, which is hard to achieve these days, when rajas and tamas are so prevalent in the culture.
The Vedic literature describes a number of significant goddesses including Ushas, Prithivi, Aditi, Saraswati, Vac, Nirrti, Ratri; and a number of minor ones, including Puramdhi, Parendi, Raka, Dhisana, – hardly mentioned about a dozen times in the Rig Veda, and they all are associated with bounties and riches. Few others like Ila, Bharati, Mahi, Hotra are invoked and summoned through hyms to take their share during certain rituals.
Other Hindu goddesses include Lakshmi, Parvati, Sita, Radha, Durga, Kali (also known as Mahakali), Mahadevi, Matrakas, Tara, Chhinnamasta, Mahavidyas, and several other goddesses associated with rivers and places.
Like Goddesses in Hindu mythology, Mrs. Merzon’s concept has swept the Bollywood filmdom. There are rumours that an eminent actress went all way to West to undergo silicon transplantation. Her case might have been leaked by Paparazzi, but the list of ‘have-nots’ actresses both in Tollywood and Bollywood are not short. It is becoming longer and longer ever year. Merzon’s wave has really swept in the East, too, where women are finding her concept more acceptable than brooding over their ill fate. And this has really encouraged even the local brands thinking seriously on this trend to ‘catch’ the growing market of ‘falsies’.
Companies are ready to make the “have-nots” “haves” this puja. Pandal-hoppers should make our eyes ready to adjust with the illusions. It could be 34 on Saptami, 38 on Astami, and may be back to square one 32 on Dashami, if not more! The girl one never gave a look because of her name in the list of “have-nots” may be seen surrounded by enumerable male-fans for her enlarged make-over.
So Cinderella had her ugly sisters, Miss Muffet the horrendous spider and feminists have Mrs Merzon and her ilk. Then what is women’s liberation? Why railway coaches specified as ‘Ladies Compartment’ or why bus and metro-trains have special arrangements for women passengers. True, today, a new wave is sweeping the East where women are getting more and more involved in decision making matters hitherto known as men’s exclusive preserves. And there seems to be a great awareness in the East that both men and women belong to the same stalk and it is senseless to claim one’s superiority over the other, disturbing the harmony of life. So whom should we choose as the one to be followed—Hidemi Aiko, Chez Merzon or Mrs Lorena Bobbet?
EOM
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com