She was already the most-Googled person in all of India in 2015, but after her interview scandal, Sunny Leone's name and story have captured the attention of audiences worldwide.
Sunny Leone, the wildly popular Bollywood phenomenon who started her career in the adult film industry, endured a highly uncomfortable and offensive interview with TV journalist Bhupendra Chaubey. The interview, which started out on a negative note -- he led off with, "Tell me one thing that you regret" -- and never took a turn for the better, has many celebrities, journalists, and viewers in an uproar.
Chaubey had Leone as a guest on his weekly interview show called "The Hot Seat," presumably prompted by her role in the upcoming film, "Mastizaade," but he spent nearly the entire interview trying to get Leone to apologize for her early career in pornography, asking leading questions and ignoring all of Leone's light-hearted attempts to turn the conversation back to more salient topics, like her professional goals and who she is apart from the way she's portrayed in the media.
Leone, with poise that earned her countless tweets and letters of support, met each of his leading questions with honesty and grace, but the entire debacle deserves a more serious look. It's no secret that modern society has a double standard for men and women when it comes to sex, and yet the public was still shocked by the interview.
How is this possible? The problem of inequality has been the dominant narrative in our societies for so long, so it's often difficult to recognize when it shows up in subtle ways.
So, what does the Chaubey-Leone interview tell us?
1. Many people still fear sexuality.
If we didn't, it wouldn't be taboo. We know, and have known for a very long time, that sexuality is a powerful force in our interactions with one another. Our sexual identities, desires, and practices have an enormous influence on how we live, and the emotions we feel when we explore our sexuality are some of the strongest emotions we experience in our entire lives.
Unfortunately, as with anything powerful, there are people who will feel threatened by it and will do everything they can to control the perceived threat. Over the years, sexuality has been pushed down, restricted, and punished in many different ways. Political, religious, and social systems all over the world have been built on top of this repression.
Even now, when many people are calling for unprecedented sexual freedom and equality, there is still a great deal of lingering prejudice that comes from an age-old fear of the power of sexuality, and it's this fear that makes it difficult for us to talk openly and compassionately about topics like porn, sex work, sexual orientations, kinks, fetishes, or anything else that doesn't fit into traditional restrictive models.
2. Men and women are still held to drastically different social and sexual standards.
During the 20-minute interview, Chaubey implied repeatedly that Leone's previous work in pornography was shameful, a threat to Indian marriages, and a corrupting influence on the "minds and morality" of the entire country. He cites critics who hold Leone's adult film work responsible for India becoming the #1 consumer of pornography in the world, and he tries, over and over, to elicit an emotional reaction to the "nastiness" of her worst critics.
Chaubey slams her with one negative question after another, trying to reduce her to a woman who will forever be "haunted" by her "porn queen past," regardless of her new endeavors. It all boils down to one question that Hillary Clinton so boldly asked an interviewer once, in response to a sexist question: "Would you ever ask a man that question?"
3. We're ready for something better.
If the public's response to the Chaubey-Leone interview shows us anything, it's that we are ready for a sexual culture of freedom and celebration rather than shame and control. We're starting to recognize misogyny when it shows up in our daily lives, and we're starting to realize how much it's holding us back. Slowly, we're taking important, brave steps toward a culture where sexuality is a natural, beautiful, and acceptable part of life and in which people are free to make their own choices.
Sunny's husband and the rest of the world, furthermore, turned out in droves to support and praise Sunny for her bravery. From every major social media site on the Internet, Sunny received encouraging words while Chaubey earned many well-earned reprimands. This disastrous interview, therefore, has turned into much more than an example of outrageous misogyny -- now, it has become a worldwide spark.
Sunny Leone may seem like an unlikely source for progressive wisdom on sexuality, but this interview sends a clear message to the world that she stands for equality and freedom of sexual expression, and it's time we followed her example.
Sandra LaMorgese Ph.D. is an expert in bridging the gap between sexuality and a lifestyle that focuses on holistic health of the mind, body and spirit. She is the author of Switch: Time for a Change, a memoir of her journey from holistic practitioner to professional dominatrix at 55 years old, and her passion and purpose is to empower others towards healthy authentic living. To learn more about Sandra and receive your FREE eBook "5 Steps for Better Communication, Sex, and Happiness (Did I mention better sex?) visit www.sandralamorgese.com.
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