Let's talk about sexAlly McBeal has got icon status not just in the USA but in urban India too. Upwardly mobile single women who hold typical nine-to-five jobs cast themselves into the Ally mould even if only for the duration of the hour-long programme beamed Wednesday nights on Star World. Repressed desires, runaway fantasies, bold feminist statements all collage to give these young ladies a sexual smorgasbord that their normal lives fail to deliver. The character of Ally though has the morals of an alley cat (perhaps the pun was intended) and this is where most Indian women are faced with a Catch-22. To be open about their sexuality or lack of it is still taboo or near enough. Though they want to be tough-as-nails professionals, the `Bharatiya nari' image contradicts and shadows them every baby step of the way. Caught in a moral dilemma, to be or not to be open about their singleness and the freedom thereof, they flounder. Overt gestures of smoking, drinking and dressing provocatively may be rule of thumb but true liberationgets somewhat hijacked at this point. Coyness about sexual experience is an age-old ritual which is taken to its extreme in urban India. Mumbai being the epicentre of the filmworld and the casting couch being a near pre-requisite to fame in Bollywood, the virgin syndrome seems quaint especially by its standard. No self-respecting heroine will ever admit to multiple sexual partners for fear of being thought brazen, yet all the film magazines focus almost entirely on gossip about the voracious sexual appetite of the film fraternity. Double standards? Sure but this phenomena is not restricted to the film world. It cuts its swathe across the social spectrum, but at its heart it has taboo about sex, sexual preference, sexuality and a plethora of rules. The Indian libido is governed by everything but itself. Therein lies the irony. The pseudo morality of happily ever after is never shattered but bubbling within this orb is frustration and anger at the curbs imposed on the individual from within and without. Withshifting social and moral boundaries the young of today are locked on the horns of sexual dilemma. They want to be honest and open about their sexuality but fear ostracisation and rejection, if they go too far. The power of the whisper group to keep the flock from straying allows only the pathbreaker an out. Rigid parenting and arranged marriages help to keep even a simple discussion on love or sex on the back burner of family issues. It is expecting a lot from one programme or character to help break through this tough mould but Ally McBeal scores in more ways than one, with the twenty- and thirtysomethings. She is sassy, smart and sexual with a motor mouth to go with it. And presto! You have the feminist in one and all raging to the fore. Not bad for a mere programme.Another programme which never fails to elicit more than a laugh is Mr Bean. Rowan Atkinson as the bumbling, naive, out-on-a-limb Englishman provides simple entertainment that is universal. As he almost never says very much, raising pure funand laughter is the mainstay of Mr Bean. It is said that comedians are hopeless attention-getters who as children craved that extra bit of love but never got it at home so to keep in the limelight they said amusing things from a young age. I heard a comedian even thank his mother for not being around when he was young as it pushed him into what became his profession. Blaming a mother in absentia has serious psychological repercussions I'm sure but the silver lining could be that you produce a comedian. Sexual gags and innuendo is the staple of most comedian repertoire. It raises the obvious question that even if most people don't talk about sex, is laughing about it harmless? The comedian gets nervous laughter when he broaches sex in his act. Yet he is able to enunciate aloud what most people are prudish about even talking. So where does that leave most of our repressed young? Watching a satellite beamed programme and identifying with a character is hardly libertine. One of the golden rules of etiquette isdon't talk about sex, religion or politics when at a formal dinner so as to avoid controversy. I think a healthy debate on all three can help to achieve true freedom of thought and spirit perhaps even a new beginning.
