"Sunny's family has ex-communicated her. No one has spoken to her since they came to know about her profession," said Daniel Weber, husband of actress and former porn star Sunny Leone, at Evoke 2014, an event at Vakola where a panel discussed the hypocrisy and misogyny surrounding sexuality.
Organised by broadcast journalist Leeza Mangaldas and chief youth marketer of DDB Mudra group Samyak Chakrabarty on Thursday, the event had five eminent speakers from various educational and professional backgrounds busting the myths surrounding sexuality and the inherent misogyny and hypocrisy among the educated lot.
Launched two years ago, Evoke provides a platform for open dialogue. One of the speakers at the event was Vivek Anad, CEO of Humsafar trust, who spoke about LGBT rights, coming out in India and section 377.
Dhun Panthaki, a sex educator with the Family Planning Association of India, spoke about the importance of sex education in schools. "The purpose of any education is to develop a well-balanced happy human being. By not giving proper sex education involving all of its components, we are giving a gun to a child and telling him/her that its a toy. We shouldn't admonish any type of curiosity among children and raise them with the core values of respect for all living things and individual choices," she said.
Deepak Jumani, a leading sexologist, spoke about intimacy issues among the youth of the country and how it has been found that there is a reciprocal relation between violence and pleasure, which leads to men committing crimes against women. Dr Duru Shah spoke freely about female sexual desire, the importance of foreplay and lubrication and the abhorrent practice of female circumcision, in which the clitoris is cut off.
Weber, head of Sunlast Films, spoke about the pros and cons of pornography. "Anyone who thinks that sex lasts for an hour like in the porn movies is wrong. These movies are studio-produced and edited. The industry is bigger than all movie industries combined. India leads the world in consuming porn, but its illegal to produce and distribute it here," he said.
Organised with the help of the Columbia Alumni Association of Mumbai, the event saw a crowd of 70 people. "People are not ready to face or hear such lectures. We are trying to provide a safe space for topics that affect our daily behaviour but are not being spoken about in the open. We had many educated people calling us promoters of homosexuality, which talks about the latent misogyny and homophobia even among the educated lot," said Leeza and Samyak.
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