Constructions of gender,sexuality,and the family in indian religions and cultures - Essay Example

The movie has focused on the life of the characters from all the classes, viz. the royal family, the workers, the teaching class and the common people and more importantly, has focused on the sexuality and the love life of these characters. The story finely weaves itself around their emotional life. However, saying that ‘Kamasutra’ was a text for woman is not completely true. As far as life was concerned, gender mattered a lot in traditional India.

The treatment of a person differed a lot according to the gender of the person in the family. A birth of a girl was definitely not a blessing as she was victim of biased treatment by family and the society ( Chopra, pg.5, 2006) [1]. The discrimination between a boy and a girl is rightly portrayed through the characters of Raj Singh, Princess Tara and her servant friend Maya. Raj Singh, being a king and a male, is allowed to have as many girls as he desires for his sexual pleasure.

On the other hand, Princess Tara who is married to him, is left helpless and unhappy as she could not make him to have sexual union with her. Her plight is ignored by her mother-in- law and she is in fact consoled saying that she should bear the pain as she has no other choice. Kamasutra was intended for women like Tara who did not have a natural talent to seduce men. Men were dominating and ruthless. Making men wise in the matter of understanding the feelings of women was the aim of Kamasutra, the scripture.

Vatsyayana, the sage from India, wrote Kamasutra to help not just a woman to understand a man’s need but also to help a man to understand the needs of a woman. Kamasutra has instructions on love making