Gere & Shetty Kiss: Un-Indian or Indian act?
Apr 19th, 2007 | 6 responses
An Indian sculpture
The Gere-Shetty kiss led to demonstrations in some parts of India. Is kissing an Indian or an un-Indian act? Some researchers believe that kiss itself could very well be India’s contribution to the world!!!
“The ruckus over a Gere peck on the Shilpa cheek, which is being bandied as an un-Indian act and a kiss, actually is neither. For one, a kiss is different from a peck and a buss technically speaking, as lips have to meet,” says The Times of India.
“And about being un-Indian, well, the oldest references to kisses are found in Indian texts and, according to some research, the kiss itself could very well be India’s contribution to the world.
“According to research by Texas A&M University anthropologist, first references to kissing appear in the Vedic texts of 1500 BC. Even the Mahabharata has mention of it and of course, you know what the Kamasutra is about…”
More here…
6 Responses to “Gere & Shetty Kiss: Un-Indian or Indian act?”
thank you Swaaraj. This image: Perfect.
It’s a lovely thought for India -to have contributed the kiss to the world.
Much more laudable than to have contributed dynamite, the six-shooter or the atom bomb.
India should be proud.
Thank you India for giving us kissing. I have enjoyed more than my share I’m sure. Anything else up your sleeve? I wait with barely concealable excitement!
I’m trying to think of what social act, here in the U.S., would be considered “un-American”. Maybe refusing to haze and harass a young person in to a paranoiac psychosis?
I don’t think it was the kiss, but the overpowering dip that got everyone in a lather. Still, from the Hindi movies I’ve seen, you can get away with just about anything as long as the lips don’t touch.
In India, as in America, those with something to gain from outrage will take an incident like this and run.
For a society who has been deeply damaged by colonialism can one think of a more offensive image of a white guy grabbing a daughter of India and forcing himself upon her? It is so symbolic. It is right in line with the image of the white colonist forcing himself upon a country and just taking whatever he wants.
Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this.
What bothers me however is those who would blame Shilpa Shetty for this.
Too often women victims of rape in India are blamed for what happened like they wanted the rape to happen or it was their fault the rape happened even when the truth might be that the rapists brutalized them and they couldn’t stop the rape from happening.
While of course Richard Gere didn’t actually rape Shilpa Shetty, I still see this whole “Blame the Woman Victim” dynamic in place. From what I saw from the video Shilpa Shetty did nothing to cause Richard Gere to act the way he did, and was in fact as shocked as everyone else was that he would act in such a disgraceful manner.
We need to defend this daughter of India, not blame her for this white man’s assault upon her.
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