Finally some women open their mouth against Kamasutra, an ancient Indian text on human sexual behavior.
“Vatsyayana failed to examine female desire and since then, women have been silent about it.”
“Kamasutra is silent on how a woman should pursue Kama or enjoy sensual pleasure”.
“Kamasutra teaches that a man can forcefully have sex with a woman and then marry her. This is against the concept of women’s security. The text has been practised for thousands of years and passed down generation… such ideas encourage treatment of woman as an object.”
“This accumulated knowledge has led to patriarchal attitudes becoming deeply embedded in the men. This encourages violence against women and we need to recognise that.”
“Even today, the so-called empowered women are not ready to face their own sexuality.”
“Women need to become equal to men. We have to work for that because men are not going to make us their equal. We must stop sacrificing our jobs for family or kids or housekeeping,”
I personally do not like some parts of Kamasutra. For example, the fourth book. It explains the role of the wife.
A wife’s main role is to keep the house functional – clean, with food on the table, well-maintained, and self-sufficient. Meals are a crucial part of a woman’s duties and she should make sure to consider what her husband likes and dislikes and what things are good for him. If a wife shows folly or ill-temper, is disliked by her husband, cannot bear children, or continually births girls, the man is free to take a second wife, whom the first wife must care for like a daughter.
Sex is a male thing, women should remain silent about their desires, men should assert their sexual dominance over women, women’s duty is to please their husbands – these concepts are not 2000 years old. Vatsyayana did not invent these concepts. 6000 year old patriarchy did.
Patriarchy does not care about women’s desire or pleasure. At least Kamasutra did. Vatsyayana was probably the first person in the patriarchal world who expressed the ideas about building women’s confidence until she was fully receptive and unafraid of having sex. According to Vatsyayana, the building of confidence is crucial, a man must recognize the signs that indicate that a girl is not only ready for sex, but that her affection has reached a sufficient point to allow him to have sex with her. Here Kamasutra is more female friendly than patriarchy.