Voice of Protest against ‘Universal Male Sexual Sadism’

[Sense & Sensuality]

Nilanshu Kumar Agrawal: Your website ‘sarojinisahoo.com’ introduces you thus:  “She writes with a greater 

consciousness of women’s bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate 

style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity.” Is not this candid and frank portrayal 

of female body anti-woman?  The titillating material provided by the feminists may 

arouse the opposite-sex and may further make the women playthings in the hands of men. 

In the poem ‘An Introduction’ by Kamala Das, we have the candid expression:  “I 

became tall, my limbs swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.”  I think this type of 

excessively candid expression may titillate the baser instincts of the men to make them

sex-maniacs and thus creating a long army of parochial men, considering a woman just a 

toy for the gratification of their desires. What are your views on this? 

Sarojini Sahoo: It is very important to understand that this social movement centers on the notion that 

sexual freedom is an essential ingredient of women's freedom.  I believe in sexual selfdetermination of women where each woman has the right to determine who she will be 

intimate with.  I am strongly against the system where without being judged for her 

choices, a woman is forced to be involved with her partner.  According to my survey, 

between 60 to 70 percent of married women of India don’t know what an orgasm is in 

their whole life.  Only they are used by their husbands and become a mother of children.  

Our Shastras also support this milieu as “Putrathe Kriyate Bharya” (means: wife is meant 

for a son). 

I stand just as strongly for a woman’s right not to have sex (of any kind) if she 

doesn’t want to and I believe that women who make that decision deserve support and 

protection as well.  I refuse to be a victim of some imaginary universal male sexual 

sadism.  As a human being, I always argue about equal status for women and I refuse to 

believe that by denying our sexual selves, women can be equal with men. 

But what I oppose is patriarchal society’s unfortunate decision to grant more 

liberation for a man than a woman.  Our current society uses woman as an object and not 

as a human being.  If a painter paints a nude of a woman, we can appreciate it as a 

masterpiece.  We can enjoy the erotic sculpture showing women’s nude bodies on the 

temple wall. 

We can digest all these from the pen and brush of a male artist, but if Kamala Das 

writes, we feel disturbed thinking that society is now in danger.  When Sunil Ganguly 

writes about his affairs with other ladies, it is cited as a literary boldness, but when 

Kamala Das expresses her passion, it is considered as ‘perverted thought.’  

How many people became sex maniacs after reading Ulysses?  We consider 

Kamasutra as classic.  I never think sex is not dirty play.  Our Shringar literature in 

Sanskrit, literature of Sangam Period in Tamil, and the erotic sculptures on temple wall  

prove that it is as truth as hunger, thirst, slumber, birth, death wish, and dreams.  How 

could you blame a woman that society is spoiled for HER only? 

( Read full interview from http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Agarwal.pdf)