Hindus smash up cinema after Bollywood breaks lesbian taboo

[CShine]

Hindu extremists laid siege to a Bombay cinema yesterday, smashing windows and burning effigies on the street outside, demanding that the screening of a new Bollywood film be stopped. The reason for their anger was that the film, Girlfriend, breaks a taboo by depicting a lesbian relationship. For the 100 or more right-wing students who attacked the cinema, that is offensive to "Indian culture".

Girlfriend is an unlikely rallying point for India's gay community. In the words of one local reviewer, it "treats lesbianism as a psychopath's sickness that needs to be treated". The plot involves two women in a relationship, one of whom becomes attracted to a man. Her partner, who became lesbian after being abused as a child, turns violently on the male interloper. However, the activists from the students' wing of the far-right Shiv Sena party, who attacked the Bombay cinema showing Girlfriend yesterday, were not interested in the niceties of the film's treatment of lesbianism. For them it was enough that the film even mentioned the subject, let alone that it contained physical depictions of lesbian sex, in the form of kissing and petting. India's board of censors have ensured that what is depicted is tame compared with what Western audiences are used to.

Censorship rules are strict in India, and no nudity is allowed in the world's biggest film industry. Nor is "profanity" permitted, and in the standard Bollywood romantic fare, the camera tends to cut to pictures of flowers blooming whenever things on screen threaten to get remotely steamy. Girlfriend pushes it a little further, according to the Shiv Sena activists who picketed the Bombay cinema yesterday.

"The film has some lesbian scenes and we got many complaints from the public, especially women, so we decided to take action," said Nitin Amberkar, one of the activists, before excitedly tearing up posters of the film. In the end, the showing had to be abandoned.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=531656

[DrZhivago]

1. sounds like a hot film

except for the killing the guy part, they should cut that part out. In fact, I am under the opinion that what the world needs is more lesbians on screen.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. This, from the culture that produced the "Kama Sutra"?

And the temples with all those fantastic sexually-explicit carvings? And all those naked fakirs and holy men? The society of public defecation? What happened? Muslim influence on Hinduism (as in the practice of purdah for women)? The British conquest? Victorianism? What a fascinating culture.

[lanparty]

3. Public defecation ????

eeewwwww!!!!!

[shanti]

11. exactly!!!

since when have east indians been "conservative"?

[On the Road]

21. East Indians Have Been Conservative for Ages

Traditional culture tends to be rigid, materialistic, and family-oriented. Lots of taboos and no-nos, especially in the area of sex and marriage.

[jdj]

24. But male homosexuality is okay for teens?

I saw this with my own eyes on GlobeTrekker, and Ian Wright asked the young men, who were all practically wrapped around each other, embracing and holding hands, and they said that it was okay for them until they were married, to ...whatever, I don't even know how to define their relationships, and Ian never did come right out and ask them "so, do you f@ck?" or anything, but it was obvious they were paired up. I have seen this on another show as well, lots of teenage male Indians hanging out in the streets holding hands and arm in arm and stuff. They said they were not allowed to date unchaperoned or do anything physical with females until they were married.

With black American males this is called the "down-low" and it's okay in some hispanic or latino cultures as long as you are the man on top, then you don't lose masculinity. It seems the underlying thread is anything is okay that doesn't restrict or threaten male access to the female, maybe this is why they are so threatened by the thought of lesbians as women who take themselves out of the game.

edit: this is a political party, shivsena, and not representative of all Indians. I think they are a pretty extreme lot, I went to their website and it sounds alot like the young republicans or Hitler youth.

[PfcHammer]

15. Sounds like it should be called the Kaka Sutra. Lotta potty talk here. n/t

[0007]

20. A little knowledge is extremely dangerous my friend

and talking out of the confused orifice proves ignorance.

[goodhue]

26. Hindu extremism is nothing new in India!

RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal Party, Ranvir sena, Shiv sena, AVBP, Indian National Congress Party, Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha, HSC (Hindu Students Council, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and Arya Samaj, Society of Aryans and their ilk have been around for decades.

Indeed, Mahatma Gandhi was killed by their elements.

Intolerant, right-wing and often pre-disposed to violence, they make the America's moral majority look like Santa Clause.

Their recent rise to national power via the BJP and the 1992 Ayodyha incident thankfully came to an something of an end in the recent election.

Even many peaceful tolerant Indians have long held puritanical-like views. Many states in India are still "dry" and alcohol is outlawed.

Outside of certain communities in the largest cities, homosexuality has not generally been accepted in the broader culture.

[SalParadise]

4. Donald Wildmon & everyone else at the AFA

would be proud.

Allthough...I'm sure some of them are disappointed that the women were older than 13 years old.

[Tight_rope]

5. This from a country with the highest rate of child prostitution!

http://www.slartc.org/trafficking.html

"Prostitution is the most documented & visible form of trafficking. But in the case of children, it is always forced prostitution and therefore must not be used interchangeably with 'sex-work', which may also be taken up voluntarily.

Their playground is the brothel, they are the playthings and toys of lust. India reportedly has the world's largest concentration of child prostitutes, accounting for 1 in every 4 of the global number. India's children are no strangers to exploitation, but none of it is as brutish as the terror to which these particularly unfortunate children have been subjected. Raped at 10, tortured and starved into submission at 11, an abortion at 12 - and sexually violated 10 times a day till age and AIDS throws them onto the streets.

The children of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are especially vulnerable to trafficking. They often do not share the language, educational access or even the right to citizenship of the majority population. So they lack the economic opportunities, the knowledge and the rights which could help protect them from traffickers and pimps."

It's ok for a 9 year old girl to have had sex with over 50 men, but it's a taboo for "GROWN WOMEN" to taught each other. Damn, and the US sends these people all our jobs.

More---> http://www.jubileeaction.co.uk/reports/CHILD%20PROSTITUTION%20IN%20INDIA.pdf

[Bhaisahab]

6. assholes all of them!

bastards who just need an issue to be in the news. fucking hypocrites.

[daleo]

7. Religious nuttery is not confined to any particular faith

More evidence, as if it was needed.

[TacticalPeek]

8. Sounds like when "The Children's Hour" played in the Deep South.

Or, tried to play (early sixties).

[JI7]

9. bunch of disgusting assholes

[nolabels]

10. Them kind of things will happen, " Public defecation " does it every time

Them potty jokes could run rampant over there and nobody would be able to deny them :hurts:

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tabasco]

16. Good rant and it gave me an idea!

The Church of Fucking Whatever! Wait - maybe the scientologists beat me to it. Whatever!

[fob]

23. The Church of F W! Now that's a theology I can support.

Yay, though we walk through the valley of the shrub,

F W!

We shall fear no smirk, nor evil chortle.

Can I get an F W!

[carolinayellowdog]

17. Jains and Buddhists are somewhat exceptional

I went to India with a notion that Hinduism was less horrible than Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Sikhism, because less pervaded by "God says I should kill you." But left feeling disillusioned as many Indians I encountered were gungho for war with Pakistan.

Buddhism has some ugly patches in its history but has considerably less to be ashamed of than the Abrahamic religions or Hinduism. And Jainism is even more exceptional to your general condemnation of religion as inherently violent.

[truthspeaker]

22. it doesn't matter what a religion teaches; people are people

You could invent a religion with a perfect moral code and inevitably someone would pervert it into a message promoting violence and hate.

[mike1963]

13. They're worried about nudity and there are nearly a billion of them...?

Those folks must fuck funny...
:eyes:

[Bhaisahab]

14. i hope that's directed at the loonies who disrupted the movie screening

and not at all indians.
coz that would be like saying all americans are fucked up psychotics coz of the prison guards' behavior in iraq...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. I feel like giving lionesspryanka a hug

Breath deeply, girl. You're in NYC. :hug:

[veganwitch]

19. Fire is much much better

if you want to see a non-sensationalised movie about lesbians in India, this is the movie to see.

[Chovexani]

29. Fire is a great movie!

I've seen it a couple of times and totally second the recommendation. This movie Girlfriend sounds like typical patriarchal Bollywood garbage.

I'm a bit of a Bollywood buff (I like the period musicals with the fabulous outfits) and I have to say this is totally typical--me and my friends actually have a drinking game for when we watch Bollywood movies. There's always a love triangle, usually a woman falls in love with someone she's not supposed to and then gets forced into a loveless arranged marriage by the family...and even though she's miserable at first she totally loves her husband, even if he keeps her locked up in the house. This happens all the time in the period movies. A *lot* of the movies push some kind of backasswards patriarchal crap.

As for the jackasses that attacked the theater...well, all I have to say is India's freepers make ours look fluffy and nice. These ppl killed Gandhi after all.

[alarcojon]

25. Kick!

:kick:

[colonel odis]

27. any word when this opens over here?

i think indian women are unbelievably sexy.

[Frangible]

28. Lesbian porn for all!

Clearly, India needs more good lesbian porn. No straight male can resist it.

[Walt Starr]

30. FUNDIES ARE WHACKED

I don't care if they're Christian fundies (Pat Robem$ome), Islamic fundies (Osama bin Laden), Jewish fundies (Ariel Sharon), Pagan Fundies (Earth First, ELF), or Hindu fundies (this story).

Fundies are WHACKED!