What did bother me about the Shilpa Shetty – Richard Gere kiss was that it clearly took her completely by surprise though she put a good face on it.

It always fascinates me to see what different cultures consider unacceptable. When I see the sort of dancing that went on in hindi movies of the early 90s I’m made rather uncomfortable by the pelvic thrusts – far more so than by the newer ones that make our current guardians-of-morality so nervous.

In other cultures, it’s the neck.

From what I’ve been hearing, it’s the kind of thing that, yes, the kiss was taboo under a certain strict interpretation of conservative morality, but most people don’t actually follow that morality.

Here, we don’t really have a judicial forum to dispute things like that, though the whole “OMG! Janet Jackson has nipples!” thing was pursued through the FCC. Which was headed by Colin Powell’s son.

Okay, so the US is no less depressingly feudal than any other place on earth.

sandinista – okay, don’t think I phrased that very well. I have failed to prosecute sexual assault in the past, and I’m certainly not in a position to judge another woman for not doing so. What worries me about Aishwarya Rai’s case is that when someone who is such a public figure in a country where there’s already a low awareness of women’s rights fails to sue, it enforces the message that women should just shut up and take it and that there’s nothing they can do for the public. Our public needs to be reminded that legal action is an option, and I see the Aishwarya Rai – Salman Khan thing as a missed opportunity more than anything else.
(Any more hostility you may have sensed is just my resentment at her stealing my name)

Only one thing bothers me:

Compare this to the high profile Aishwarya Rai – Salman Khan relationship. Everyone seems to know that he assaulted her, but she’s never done anything about it; it’s as if it never occurred to her that he could be punished.

Certainly, what Sawant did is very valuable and you’re correct in calling BS on the superficial reasons for which she is dismissed. However, this attitude toward Rai, like she’s too stupid to understand what she obviously should have done, like it never occurred to her that he could be punished is decidedly non-feminist. Women don’t report/prosecute domestic/sexual assault for many reasons. Whether to do so is the choice of every individual woman. It is no one’s place to judge them, certainly not in a feminist space, I would think.