The incorporation of women’s desires and positive sex talk on OTT

Women’s desires on screen are no more a taboo with the coming of digital platforms whether it is a Hush Hush, Masaba Masaba or Rasbhari. In fact, the digital platform is quite progressive in the way they think about women’s sexuality. Now women want to be the queen of their sex lives and that’s what OTT is trying to portray through their web shows and films. The way intimate scenes are conducted in web shows, where the women are taking the lead, is changing the gaze. This happens when women direct a show. Sex for pleasure and not just for reproduction is what the digital platform is trying to show. Female sexuality i sno more a hushed up topic and thanks to OTT.

Actor Aahana Kumra says, “Lipstick Under the Burkha which I was a part of has been one of the most liberal films that has come out in recent times. A lot of films have been made after that and I don’t think they have come close to that kind of liberation for sexuality.”

Kumra explains that it is easy to show women going partying and getting undressed. “But I don’t think that to be liberalisation. I think liberalisation should come from within and a lot of digital platforms have been able to do that which talks about women’s desires. We really need what is happening in the west right now to get coaches and sex experts to help doing intimate scenes. And a lot of directors say, please do, but what do I do? It is not like my co-actor is my sex partner. He is someone who is completely unknown to me. So, I need to feel relaxed when I am performing an intimate scene on the sets.”

Web shows on digital platforms are unapologetically talking about women’s desires. Script writer Kanika Dhillon in a recent interview with Firstpost rightly said, “We should have spoken about it 100 years ago.”

Things are changing with the digital platform, but it has got a lot to do with the male gaze. The way men look at sexuality and the way females look at sexuality, there is a lot of difference. Female sexuality is very well directed by women. I think the “Female gaze is very important.  I feel a lot of women directors and producers are coming in and the way they are turning things around needs to be appreciated,” adds Kumra.

Why will women not look for pleasure outside marriages if they are not happy and that’s what reality is? Monogamy is not a sin. The content that is made on OTT is bringing out the reality. And women viewers are glad that it is happening. Explaining about her views o sex for pleasure, Kumra says, “Sex is not only for just producing babies. There are lot of us who don’t want children and we would like to have sex because it is pleasurable. It means something different to different people. And OTT is doing just that, not boxing people and women’s desires.”

A lot of content on OTT is made keeping women’s desire in mind where they want to have other women for desire and it is shown as a normal thing for men, but now turning around the content for women is making the shows and films on the digital platform relatable for women. Aahana on a lighter note adds, “I just hope that it just shouldn’t influence too many women.”

Sex today is out of the closet. There is an unabashed, casual approach towards sex. Lot of women admit that they just want to have a hook-up and they are even openly indulging in fling and even emotionally committed relationships with married men. There is no judgement or feeling that, “Oh! I have become some married man’s mistress.”

Erotica writer Sreemoyee Piu Kundu says, “Women are openly saying that if the married man is okay cheating on his wife and if they are not happy in the relationship yet they don’t want to get out of the marriage, it is not the other woman’s problem. So, this moral onus of sex which seen through the eyes of religion and family, reproduction and conformity being god fearing are actually going out of the window. And there is a lot more fluidity about gender which I see these days in reality.”

OTT has added to the sexual revolution and definitely there is a lot more uninhibited sexual behaviours, dynamics and there are shows which show a woman’s not happy with her sex life where actor Konkona Sen Sharma plays the role of an unfulfilled housewife in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare and ‘Four more Shots’, these shows and films on OTT are definitely pushing the envelope.

Once in an interview with Konkona during the release of Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare on Netflix, she had mentioned that earlier she would get to play women who are very strong or women of substance or women who are very morally upright. She says, “But women don’t have to be like that all the time. I would like to play women who are irresponsible and who make bad choices. Now I am happy to play such flawed characters because those are very real depictions. I do only those roles which engage me.”

Sreemoyee being a single woman believes that the portrayal of a single woman is a little too derogative which shows promiscuous women provocatively dressed jumping on the bed with a married man. “This is not the truth though. It pains me to see the depiction of a single woman on screen. It is always catering to male gaze. There is not much feminist content. It still very steamy and very Alt Balaji type pornographic material.”

Women are now happier to see shows and films, written, directed and produced by women and most importantly which cater to women. In Rasbhari we see Swara Bhasker as a school teacher in a small town. Again, we wouldn’t like to have Sima Aunty Season 2 where misogyny is shown on a mass scale. What women want to see is a lot more feminist erotic content, forbidden pleasures and real Indian women and their intimate lives.

“In real life sex is on the table very early when you are exploring the relationship,” admits Sreemoyee. Sex is a pleasurable act and you need to be turned on. It’s a mind game and not just between your legs. There is a growing awareness of this and somewhere OTT is able to take this forward in a positive way. Again sex shouldn’t be boxed. But to reach the level of equity in our bedroom it will take some time.

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