You all have piqued my interest again enough to draw me from my lurker recesses and comment (confirming Deepa's theory, in least insamuch as it applies to moi)...
On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 1:18 AM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: > In the Indian mind too - the pink elephant always lurks in the background, > and > even if his body language does not lie, a rebound guilt phenomenon makes > the > Indian subconsciously contort his language to actively tiptoe around any > idea > that he may be thinking of that pink elephant, sex somewhere in the > background. > > Shiv: I don't think this is an isolated phenomena. As I like to say, the rebound guilt phenomena penetrates everywhere the Puritans (or puritan-like thought) did. We've got a similar guilt reflex/response, although it's been diminished over the last decade or so due to the fact that as Americans, we'd be doing it all the time. > To be fair Indian women too are often guilty of this - a least in my > personal > experience. I have found friends and collegues beginning to imagine that I > am > about to express lewd thoughs or tell a dirty joke when nothing of the sort > is likely. And of course the ubiquitous and unconscious so called "wrist" > sign" where the woman brings her hand up to her face in an ostensibly > needless gesture that is actually intended to cover a bare neck and > imaginary > cleavage from prying eyes. But here Indian women have a pallu/dupatta that > they pull across the area when they feel that the pink elephant has squares > on his mind. > > Interesting. I'm curious what the exact pinpoint for their reaction is. Although my male friends often accuse me of trying to read their minds, it turns out that their actions speak a helluva lot louder. While I can't say that I necessarily go for the "wrist sign" maneuver when I'm graced with a man who's spending what I perceive of as undue time admiring the twins, I have caught myself adjusting my shirt, or twisting my body. More recently though, I've found that the best approach is just to start curiously gazing at their neither regions. That tends to bring everyone back into focus :) > I saw an interesting photo yesterday - a group of South American heads of > state - all the men were in suits, and the sole woman had a scarf neatly > wrapped around her neck to cover any skin that might have been visible in > her > lower neck/upper chest area. It appears that women must do this to function > effectively in a male dominated world. > > I wouldn't be surprised if this was indeed the case. During the recent elections here, when Hillary Clinton was in the running, the media, spent an inordinate amount of time not only criticizing her policy positions (which is par for the course), but also her fashion statements and trends. [1] Ditto for Michelle Obama. [2] [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/business/media/11min.html [2] http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-arms29-2009mar29,0,4782966.story (now here's a sad commentary... In doing a quick search on the 'tubes for those links ... I found not one, but 4 separate blogs devoted to following Michelle Obama's fashion dos and don'ts. And you wonder why politico women go for out of the conservative shapeless look!) Carey
