Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia

Book excerpt: Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia: Religion, Culture of Ability, and Patriarchy explores the intersection of religion, culture of ability, and patriarchy in relation to sex, desire, and taboo. Divided into six chapters, this book utilizes Western theorists such as Foucault and Freud in conjunction with Spivak’s theory of the subaltern to establish a theoretical context on sexuality. Through this lens, Acharya evaluates the intersection between religion, patriarchy, and gender and their impact on the perception of sex and desire as a taboo within a South Asian context. The book also examines how individuals contend with their sexual desires, using literature and social media to display the stark difference between the cultural promotion of antisexualism and existing ancient texts on the art of erotica, such as the Kamasutra. In doing so, Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia expands on Eurocentric notions of sexuality and addresses the conditions of the subaltern to explore the complex dynamics of sex in South Asia.