I’ll skip the charades of an introduction and get right into things. I’m not sure what to think of Sexy. Here’s why:
Miranda is a pretty awful person. She knows she’s “a wife’s worst nightmare.” She loves playing the role of mistress, even going as far as buying clothes she thinks a side chick should have. Then there is this whole sexy business.
Two Kinds of Sexy
I have no qualms with the word sexy. I don’t blame Dev for saying it, nor do I blame the child for saying it. I point to the Emma Watson photo shoot for Vanity Fair as proof. If you don’t keep up with popular culture as much as me (which is probably best), I’ll fill you in. She posed topless for a photo shoot and the backlash was immense. Perhaps the most direct criticism was from feminists who were disappointed their celebrity spokesperson would somehow undermine feminist principles by posing nude. Her was her response ““It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding that there is about what feminism is,” she said. “Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my **** have to do with it.”
Her response was “It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding that there is about what feminism is. Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my **** have to do with it.”
Now, that might not be your opinion – It’s surely not mine. But at least the notion is out there in last couple of years that a person (I’m avoiding the word woman because it goes both ways) can both be intelligent and savvy as well as express their sexuality.
Dev
That’s a really long way of explaining why I’m not frustrated with the word sexy. I’m not sure the author is either. Yes, the conflict revolves around the word, but she also describes Dev as a gentleman. He opens doors. He brings her flowers. Yeah, he’s a bit too smooth, but he’s more than just a shallow guy, at least at first. While the relationship deteriorates to only sex, it kind of feels inevitable. The author isn’t presenting something new here. It’s how we imagine every affair goes. The excitement wears off and what’s left is a pretty cheap commodity. Dev might not be the best guy but the affair sounds pretty typical.
Rohin
When the kid says sexy, it’s still fairly innocent. Despite the meaning explained later, what do you expect a kid to say? And why does Miranda actually but on her “mistress dress” in front of him? A kid probably hears, hot, sexy, and cute at school. What’s he gonna say? Sexy. Is it enough to make Miranda end the affair? Well, not really. Circumstance ends the affair. The weather ends the affair. I return to my main point, Miranda is awful.
Semantics
However! While I don’t have a problem with “sexy” that doesn’t mean there aren’t different meanings to the word. It may mean defined facial features and long legs to Dev. To Rohin, it might mean loving someone you don’t know.
At the core of the story is a lesson on meaning. How do different people mean a word? How does experience inform our definitions? My intital reaction to the story was, “well it depends on whose saying it.” Now, I think who’s saying it doesn’t matter. It matters what they mean.
In the end, I still think Miranda is an awful person. I don’t think Rohin’s definition really ended things. Sure it helped, but it wasn’t the final blow. I wonder if Miranda wouldn’t entertain another handsome gentleman approaching her on the bench at the Mapparium.
The post The Semantics of Sexy appeared first on Digital Humanities.
