The Pink Panties Movement and the Indian Women's Sexual Revolution

The cultural boundaries imposed on the sexual freedom and sexual expressions of women, have been an effective means of the subjugation of women in societies all over the world. In the west however, by the 1970s, the feminist movement was already pulling down those walls and demanding the same rights to sexual autonomy as men. Easier access to contraception and the legalization of abortion were part and parcel of this march to sexual freedom. Though some think this goal is still far from being realized, the recent popularity of television series like Sex and the City, about the sexual escapades of four, single, freewheeling women in New York City, is an indication of a certain level of societal comfort in modern, western societies with the notion of women's sexual assertions.

In non-western countries like India however, even as a minute section of the liberal elite tries to experiment with the idea of sexual freedom within the privacy of its restricted space, the sexual boundary walls for women remain dauntingly tall and unchallenged, and are periodically reinforced through the public castigation of violators.

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