‘Netflix and Chill’ has become a new mantra for many millennials. It’s quite common for us to spend hours, nights, and weekends watching and binge-watching extremely lengthy shows religiously. However, for me, many times, this experience has proved more fruitful, informative, and thought-provoking than just sitting on the couch and chilling.
Coming to the point, I was binge-watching The Bold Type. In one of the initial seasons, while having a casual conversation about kissing and feeling, Katie Stevens (Jane Sloan), the writer at Scarlet magazine says to one of her Lesbians best friends who is the Social Media Head in the same magazine, Aisha Dee (Kat Edison), “Is it like a lesbian kiss or …….?” To this, Kat responded, “Isn’t it just a kiss?”. “Oh yeah!”, Jane acknowledged. Well, one couldn’t pay much attention to it by regarding it as just one of the lines written in the script of this long show. However, for me, it counts for writing and centering one whole piece around this idea.
The question is, why kissing, having sex, and being in relationships is dominantly assumed to be something that happens only in heterosexual couples? Why are we so disoriented to the idea of lesbian couples and couples from all over the gender spectrum? While talking about, let’s say kissing, why is it that most of us instantly imagine a girl or boy, a man or a woman kissing and not a lesbian couple or a gay couple for that matter? Is it the lack of knowledge and experiences or the internalized homophobia? The answer could be more complex than this, for sure.
Let’s be clear. It’s not just heterosexual men and women who feel hesitant in recognizing lesbian couples and respecting their intimacy. Given how our society is structured and cultured with a level of hierarchy between cis-men, cis-women, and individuals from the whole gender spectrum, even lesbian couples sometimes might restrict themselves in openly recognizing their partners, exploring their sexuality, and living like free birds that they have the right to. But, let’s dance a bit more around reality.
In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled unanimously in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India that Section 377 (a section of the Indian Penal Code introduced in 1861 during the British rule of India that made makes sexual activities “against the order of nature” illegal) was unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalizes consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex”. After the court ruling, it was expected that it would improve our outlook towards our social community, more and more individuals from the gender spectrum would take ownership of their identities, and it would become a source of awareness further. As we chill in 2021, most of us still carry the perspectives and regressive ideas of 1861. That needs to change.
And yeah, it’s just a kiss, it’s just sex, it’s just a relationship. All these things are an important part of every human’s lives and all of us have the right to feel all emotions and intimacy.
Image Credits: PopBuzz
Udisha Srivastav is a Freelance Content Writer with Femsay.com