Women in revealing dresses: liberation, or titillation? || Acharya Prashant (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: Interview Session, 12.01.20, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India  Context: Is wearing short dresses a reason for rape? Why does our society restrict us from wearing short dresses? Is wearing bold dress a symbol of freedom?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Acharyaji, there is a question in my mind that keeps bothering me quite a lot.

00:15So, this concept of wearing short dresses, and not being seen in short dresses in the public,

00:27that you can do it at home, that it's fine if you wear whatever you want, but at home,

00:32but don't go outside in those short clothes, in what you're comfortable with.

00:38Some of the world leaders even allege that one of the reasons that a woman would get

00:46raped is because she was wearing revealing clothes. So, what is your understanding on this?

00:53There are two sides involved here.

01:00One, the woman who is walking about wearing whatever clothes she is,

01:11and she has her own story to tell, and then there are those who are leering and jeering,

01:22and ogling,

01:28mocking, sometimes attacking.

01:41I would want to have a sincere discussion with both of them.

01:52Firstly, with the side that is so articulate in saying that women should mind their clothes,

02:12their dressing. I want to ask them, what kind of person are you, man or a woman?

02:28If anything is able to disturb or provoke you so easily,

02:35your allegation is that when you watch a woman dressed skimpily,

02:48then that becomes a disturbance, a distraction, even a provocation.

02:58How will you insulate yourself, and how much will you insulate yourself from the world?

03:10And what are the

03:15limits to what you want to see and not see?

03:22Today, you say that

03:26women's legs or thighs provoke you.

03:35What prevents you from saying

03:38tomorrow that her ankles or fingernails provoke you? Would you then demand that she cover up

03:52from head to toe?

03:55I want to question this, after all body is body, skin is skin, flesh is flesh, and blood and bones are blood and bones.

04:06What prevents somebody from saying that women's legs or fingernails provoke you?

04:16I want to question this, after all body is body, skin is skin, flesh is flesh, and blood and bones are blood and bones.

04:24What prevents somebody from coming up tomorrow and saying that the sight of a naked nose is a great sexual invitation to me?

04:36You see nose, I find nose quite erotic.

04:47And was it not so that in Victorian England, even the legs of tables and chairs were covered

04:59because legs are not supposed to be displayed.

05:02It's a matter of conditioning, you can condition yourself to think that legs are highly sensual, even erotic.

05:14Even on tables, even on tables, even on furniture.

05:17So, this whole thing will not rest even if you totally drape the woman in all kinds of protective clothing.

05:37Then they will say that the very sight of the feminine figure, even if totally covered, provokes us.

05:45So, women should not be allowed to even walk in public and the matter might not end even at this point.

05:55They might say the very thought of woman provokes us.

06:01So, women should not probably allowed to exist because if they exist and if we know that they exist, they become a disturbance to us.

06:11We are being disturbed, our mental peace is being lost and women are the culprit.

06:17Why do they exist at all? Go ahead and attack them.

06:21So, I want to ask this to them.

06:25Is it really so that you cannot stand the sight of a bare arm or thigh or back or cleavage?

06:41Is it really so very explosive to you, you can't stand it?

06:47What kind of a person are you?

06:49When the woman is not in front of you, do you keep fantasizing about her all the time?

06:59This is mental illness.

07:02Only if you are indulging in all kinds of sexual fantasies and inner perversion,

07:11will you then jump upon her at the first sight?

07:26Otherwise, there is hardly anything so very alluring in the bare body of a human being, a person, a female.

07:47Had you had any kind of little spiritual education, you would have known the fact of the body.

08:00Had you paid even a few visits to a crematorium,

08:06you would have known what bones, skin, blood and all the visual beauty is really about.

08:25You just need to see the intestines popping out of the stomach of a burning body

08:41and you would lose all fascination for bellies and belly buttons.

08:52So I seriously need to sit with those people who say that women by dressing in so-called loose way

09:04make us vulnerable, corruptible.

09:09They are the ones who are responsible because they provoke us.

09:14These people need some rigorous counseling.

09:20They are sick.

09:26Then there are the women who say that it is a mark of our freedom that we wear whatever we like to wear.

09:37I understand.

09:41Freedom must be respected.

09:44Freedom must be respected, but for freedom to be respected, freedom must be freedom, not conditioning.

09:52Freedom deserves all respect, not conditioning.

09:55When you say that you want to come out in public wearing this and that,

10:00would you please sit down for a moment and ask yourself why exactly do I want to wear what I am wearing?

10:13Obviously, if you are on the shore, if you are at a beach or if you are in a swimming pool,

10:27then you have to wear the swimming costume.

10:32It could be a two-piece bikini.

10:35Then it is obvious why you need to wear only that much.

10:44You are not going to swim in a sari.

10:48Similarly, there are other obvious functional utilitarian reasons why one dresses a particular way

11:02and then there could be the ultimate reason of physical comfort.

11:10That too is an obviously valid reason.

11:13One feels physically comfortable wearing something and the moment you say that you feel very comfortable,

11:22physically comfortable wearing hot pants or micro-minis or whatever,

11:29nobody holds any right to object because it is your body and if your body feels better wearing a particular kind of stuff,

11:37who is anybody else to object?

11:40But then you sincerely need to ask yourself and only you can ask this to yourself,

11:46is it only for reasons of functional utility or physical comfort that I am wearing what I am?

11:55If you are wearing what you are wearing because it is functionally needed,

12:00let us say you are an athlete, you will have to wear in a dress up in a particular way

12:11or if you say that you are very comfortable wearing this or that because it is hot

12:18and you cannot stand to wear something that is heavier or more oppressive in that kind of weather, fine.

12:34But I have seen women in sub-zero temperatures, the temperature is minus 4

12:56and she is wearing almost nothing.

12:59That does not provoke a reaction from me but basic simple curiosity.

13:16Are you cold proof?

13:22Are you weather and climate proof?

13:24Do you have some kind of divine heating mechanism inside you that men do not have?

13:37How is it so that you choose to reveal the body even in sub-zero temperatures

13:44and all the men are walking around in heavy woolens?

13:55And you do not need to go abroad to test what I am saying.

13:58Just go to any discotheque in Delhi on a Saturday night rather a Sunday morning at 2 a.m.

14:08that is the time when all the discotheques shut down and watch the women coming out

14:16and notice the difference between the dressing of the male folk and the women.

14:31If you are using your body to gather attention,

14:39if gathering male attention has become very important to you,

14:47then it is not a good psychological state to be in.

14:55Are you getting it?

14:57And please remember I am not saying this as an advocate of the male population.

15:06I am saying this as a friend of the woman.

15:12I am asking her, why is the male sight or the male gaze so important to you?

15:23If you want attention from people, if you want respect from people,

15:29why can't it be for higher reasons?

15:33Why do you want them to look at you because you have a sexy figure?

15:42Why can't you have them look at you because you have certain qualities or accomplishments?

15:49Remember if you want men to look at just your body,

15:59they would actually be always looking down at you.

16:03But if people, men or women look at you because of your qualities,

16:10they would always be looking up to you.

16:13So to hoots to what all the men say, let them go to hell.

16:23But as a woman, don't you want to question yourself?

16:27I mean how has testosterone become so important to me?

16:35How?

16:38For the sake of his eye, why am I exposing my body?

16:49Is he so very important?

16:54Is he so very central to my existence that I can't live without getting appreciation and adoration from him?

17:05That's the question the women need to ask themselves.

17:10That's also a question those boys and men need to ask themselves

17:17who develop a gym-toned sculpted body and then want to take off their tees.

17:34In all kinds of pretexts and that's obviously to get the attention of the other.

17:43I understand we live in a society, we are related to each other.

17:48We will have something to do with the other.

17:52You will always have some relationship with the other.

17:56But why can't that relationship be on healthier grounds?

18:01Why must the two be related because they appreciate each other's body?

18:08And when I say that I do not mean that sculpted bodies are not advisable.

18:16Obviously, both men and women should have perfectly fit bodies.

18:22But then relating to the other merely by advertising your body is no good.

18:29No good.

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