Row over ‘beautiful’ sense of ‘sexy’

Jaipur, Feb. 25 (PTI): “Sexy” means “beautiful and charming”, so girls should not regard it in a “negative sense” when boys throw the word at them, the chairperson of the country’s apex women’s rights panel has said, rousing a howl of protests.

“Boys pass comments on girls calling them sexy but sexy means beautiful and charming. We should not see it in a negative sense,” Mamta Sharma, the National Commission for Women chief, said at an event held by a women’s organisation.

Sharma would have done well to check the dictionary. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “sexy” means sexually attractive and sexually exciting and also someone who is sexually excited.

Soon after Sharma’s remarks at the programme, the BJP went hammer and tongs at her.

The party said Sharma was promoting eve-teasing by making such statements. BJP state vice-president Suman Sharma said: “It is shameful that a woman who holds a responsible position at the national level has such thoughts about women.

“Her comments are demoralising to women. She should be removed from the NCW immediately if the Congress is sensitive towards the feelings of women.”

Several women’s organisations too condemned Sharma’s statement.

“It is shocking that Sharma is commenting on how women and girls should receive the word ‘sexy’. We are outraged and shocked by what she has said,” the outfits said in a joint statement.

Sharma, though, said her comments should be taken in a “positive sense”.

“I was positive in my approach, so I said that ‘sexy’ means beautiful. One should take it in a positive sense,” she said.

View the original article here