{"id":3061,"date":"2016-05-07T17:11:37","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T11:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2016-05-07T17:11:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T11:41:37","slug":"indian-women-porn-lust-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=3061","title":{"rendered":"Why Indian Women Need to Tell More Lust Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p><\/div>

\n\nwas 17, when <\/span>50 Shades of Grey<\/span><\/i> became an international sensation. Since our generation missed the whole Mills & Boons phase that tingled the spines and nether regions of the women before us, I was surprised to see, for the first time, women across the country reading something surreptitiously. On the <\/span>local train<\/span><\/a> in Mumbai, on <\/span>Delhi buses<\/span><\/a>, women drubbed the banality of the daily commute, but coyly covered their copies with inoffensive brown paper. <\/span>\n\nBack then, I presumed that the \u201cerotica for women, by women\u201d industry had finally been launched into public consciousness with the exploits of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. Of course, unknown to my young mind, the rise of erotica for women, predated EL James considerably. <\/span>\n\nThe earliest writings of <\/span>female desire<\/span><\/a> go back to 600 BC with the Greek poet Sappho, who wrote erotic poems about her desperate, burning desires, often for other woman. \u00a0Centuries after Sappho, authors like Ana\u00efs Nin pioneered the genre in the modern world. Nin published memoirs of her own sexual explorations as well as erotic fictional short stories, becoming the first popular female erotica writer of our times. About the anthology <\/span>Delta of Venus<\/span><\/i>, for instance, written for a private collector, Nin anointed herself as the \u201cMadam\u201d of a \u201cliterary house of prostitution\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nIn the Indian subcontinent, the names are not that familiar \u2013 surprising, considering we\u2019re the first to stake a claim to the <\/span>Kama Sutra<\/span><\/a>. Andal is perhaps the oldest evidence of erotica written by a woman even though she\u2019s hardly a household name. The Tamil poet\u2019s divine works, which talk about her desires of an intimate union with God, speak frankly about her sexual cravings and are often erotic. Indian authors like <\/span>Aryanani<\/span><\/a>, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, and Rosalyn D\u2019Mello have further written notable pieces of erotic fiction and non-fiction that focus on the <\/span>desires of the Indian woman<\/span><\/a>, without reducing them to objects of desire. They are works that advocate a female perspective on desire, a narrative largely missing in the popular domain but sadly they\u2019ve never been mainstreamed. <\/span>\n\nAuthor Jaya Misra\u2019s debut novel, <\/span>Kama: The Story of the Kama Sutra, <\/span><\/i>hopes to do that. It is written as a piece of erotic literature that offers a fictional time machine into the life of the man who wrote the Kama Sutra: Vatsyayana. I have no idea if Misra intended <\/span>Kama<\/span><\/i> as feminist erotic literature, but it does advocate erotica with strong female characters and it doesn\u2019t fail to give you that familiar tingle in all the right places. <\/span>\n\n

Not only does erotica by women make for better reading, it also helps women across India realise that they have the right to be sexually active. And enjoy it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nAs you travel with Vatsyayana to uncover the mysteries of sexual pleasure through his relationships, brothel encounters, or rebound escapades, you can\u2019t help but be turned on by the women he meets on his journey. There are no ordinary women in Kama, to be bedded and forgotten. Each one is fierce, independent, and outspoken, be it the most sought after \u201cganika\u201d Nayantara with an army of King Cobras or Queen Ratnavati with the bravery to endanger her life for love. Most importantly, every woman not only craves Vatsyayana\u2019s time, they ensure they get it through skillful seduction and unabashed admission of their sexual desires. Misra simultaneously manages to make Vatsyayana every woman\u2019s dream and each female character\u2019s strength an inspiration. <\/span>\n\nBut it\u2019s not all about <\/span>feminism<\/span><\/a>. It is also pure erotica at work here. Each time Vatsyayana has sex with a woman, it is a beautiful orchestrated performance of mutual pleasure: <\/span>\n\n\u201cThey began kissing ferociously. He kisses her senseless, gently ripping off the tiny cloth holding her breasts…He ignited a well of passion which left her delirious with desire\u2026 She saw his eyes glaze and felt a sense of power. It gave her the courage to whisper, \u201cEnter me.\u201d<\/span>\n\nThere is not a moment of guilt or shame in reading the pages of unadulterated erotica \u2013 but rather a sense of relief, albeit fictional, that someone understands how to write female characters, and sex scenes that give women due credit. It is sex writing at it\u2019s very best. <\/span>\n\nAny good erotica writer, will elevate themselves from the status of a chronicler to a poet. They will weave sequences that understand your deepest desires, and make you wish that real people were like characters in the book. Unfortunately, sex writing has not proven easy for most authors who attempt it. <\/span>\n\nWhat you find, are penny dreadfuls littered with the fantasies of 16-year-old schoolboys who dream about busty supermodels under their blankets. The Literary Review\u2019s Bad Sex Awards have nominations of authors every year who\u2019ve written terrible sex scenes. And every year, the number of male nominations exceeds female nominations. <\/span>Video pornography<\/span><\/a> is populated with young boy fantasies of unrealistically voluptuous women, that most of my female friends find humorous rather than erotic. Which is perhaps why, some women, documented in episode 1 of the Netflix original <\/span>Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On<\/span><\/i>, are attempting to bring a more feminist perspective into erotica by creating high-quality pornography aimed at women. <\/span>\n\nThe rise of porn-by-women-for-women in both literature and film, is a welcome change in a country that is so squeamish about sex that we can\u2019t even talk about it. Not only does erotica by women make for better reading, it also helps women across India realise that they have the right to be sexually active. And enjoy it. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erotica for women, by women, is only just coming of age, even though the earliest writings of female desire go back to 600 BC. The new novel, Kama: The Story of the Kama Sutra, hopes to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":3062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[405,710,4670,6002,6003,6004,5499,853],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-and-sex","tag-erotica","tag-feminism","tag-feminist","tag-jaya-misra","tag-kama","tag-kama-sutra","tag-lust-stories","tag-porn"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Indian Women Need to Tell More Lust Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Erotica for women, by women, is only just coming of age, even though the earliest writings of female desire go back to 600 BC. 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