A couple of years ago, legendary Malayali playback singer KJ Yesudas had come up with solemn advice for girls that involved not wearing jeans. Apparently, this would help them uphold Indian cultural values.
The popular Carnatic musician, who has also sung for Hindi films, has now targeted the prevalent selfie culture among the younger generation. One cannot blame the singer for being annoyed with strangers, be it a boy or a girl, who invade his personal space and want to click selfies with him up close.
But it is not his objection to selfies per se that has caught the eye of the media, but his nostalgic longing for the 80s era when apparently girls would never come forward to request a picture to be clicked with him.
That he equates such shyness on their part with well-brought up and properly groomed girls (as opposed to the ‘shameless’ kind, we assume) is what has drawn its fair share of criticism.
To quote the 76-year old verbatim:
“In the 80s, no girl would come and ask permission to click a photograph. Modest and demure -that was how it was back then. This is not about finding faults. Even when someone introduced, ‘…this is my wife, daughter…’ they used to maintain a respectable distance. [sic]
But today, that is not the case. With the advent of selfies, all they want is to cosy up to get a click. I have always warned both boys and girls from doing so. I have no problems with someone wanting to take a photograph with me. But it is a NO for selfies that involve touching of bodies.”
Earlier, Yesudas had opined that jeans adorning female bodies force the masculine gaze to linger beyond society’s prescribed range of what should be seen and what should be not. According to him, jeans served as some sort of magnet that could lead the poor male astray.
It’s always the girl’s fault, you see!
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