Indian actress to pose for Playboy, ruin India

Huffington Post: Weird News; Wisdom Quarterly

India makes more movies than Hollywood

Sherlyn Chopra, a Bollywood film actor, will become the first woman from India to strip naked in Playboy. The 28-year-old knockout wrote to the magazine and suggested the idea herself, the BBC reported. They got back to her within a few days to accept. 

   

Fans will have to wait till the November issue circulates to get a glimpse of Chopra. A press conference earlier this week heralded the addition of a "Bollywood goddess" to the pantheon of beauties who've appeared on the pages of Hugh Hefner's magazine. 

 

India is socially conservative to a fault

But her decision to pose caused a controversy in her native India where the granddaddy of all adult magazines is banned. A critic cited by the Daily Mail wrote "one wonders if Sherlyn Chopra’s pictures wound a woman’s integrity."

  

Chopra, who has had small roles in a handful of Bollywood flicks, is unfazed by the criticism. "I have become the first Indian to pose naked for Playboy," she said to the BBC, "and nobody can take away that achievement from me," She uploaded snapshots from her tour of the famous Playboy mansions in Los Angeles to her Twitter account.

• PHOTOS: Sherlyn Chopra and Hugh Hefner
• Porn magnate Hugh Hefner reunited with girlfriend
• Bollywood hypocrisy: "The Dirty Picture"

 India tries to come to terms with its double standard in "The Dirty Picture"

as a Bollywood starlet is both made famous and condemned for being sexy.

Will gratuitous porn ruin India?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The specter of the bunny ears looms

Modern India is an amazingly conservative and sexist country. Although it creates far more movies than Hollywood, which are seen by far more people in India, there is no nudity in any of them. There is no sex, and for the longest time, there were no overt kisses, although both acts were implied. Dancing is celebrated and often serves as a substitute just as it has in many places around the world (including the US). And more and more violence is celebrated. But sex is taboo, which partially explains the massive population: With suppression comes a mystique with no legitimate outlet for experimentation, so illegitimate resources are exploited in secret. It is exactly because it is taboo that it remains titillating, fascinating, and an endless font of hypocrisy. Until now that titillation has been directed at foreigners (as well as children, the helpless, the most vulnerable, etc.), particularly Westerners, who constantly appear in what little porn is available in India. (It certainly exists but is very underground). Now rather than "liberating" anyone, Western-style exploitation can begin in earnest. Will it ruin India? It may. Other things like war, a war economy (thanks to a growing military-industrial complex), and infrastructure problems may seem more salient. But the day to day experience of living in sexist India is about to get worse.