Comparing sex-attitude of westerners with respect to the contemporary traditional Indian sex-attitude

Pages: 204-208
Navneet Chopra (Department of Philosophy, Punjab University, Chandigarh)

Sex is a normal biological drive, but has been controlled by social norms in almost all civilizations, albeit to differ- ent degrees along different dimensions of sexual life in different cultures. Today west is known as a champion of liberty and choice to ensure better quality of life and happiness to its citizens, and this includes the issue pertain- ing to sex as well. This study aims to assess the degree of deviance of sexual norms of westerners with respect to the traditional Indian sexual norms along four dimensions: It was found that the degree of deviation was high for the dimension of ‘Freedom of Expression and Indulgence in Sex’ (i.e. they experienced much more freedom of expression & indulgence in sex as compared to Indians). The degree of deviation was high for ‘Virginity Attitude’ (i.e. westerners didn’t expect their spouse to be sexually-virgin before marriage). The degree of deviation was low for the dimension of ‘Fidelity Expectation’ (i.e. quite like Indians they still expected their partners to be faithful to them as long as they are in a relation). The degree of deviation was medium for the dimension of ‘Double Sex- Standards for Males and Females’ (i.e. to a certain extent they still have different sexual norms or expectations from males & females, e.g. females are not expected to initiate the romantic relationship by approaching the male; it is male who is expected to pay the bill not female if a couple goes together in a restaurant; boys are encouraged to make more & more girlfriends by the siblings but the same is not the case for the girls, etc.). It was informed by some female participants (all foreigners) in the interviews that they do haveliberty of roaming around late night in the city and across cities without much fear of goons or eve-teasers (with the exception of some notorious areas). The effect of this sexual liberalization seems to have positive effects on the sexual behaviour of their population with lesser sex-crimes and more freedom to the women.