Today, we learned about the history and importance of Kama Sutra today in my history of south asia class.
It’s really unfortunate how exploited and misrepresented the concept and philosophy of Kama Sutra has become by western audiences to further perpetuate orientalist stereotypes and has been watered down to “wild sex positions” by magazines like cosmo then commodified with the sex industry because hey! sex sells, period. It’s seen as erotic with sexual overtones that have a attracted an appeal to Westerners who are too happy to see in an Eastern work of art the proof of a an image that fits only too well the colonialist view.
To belittle the philosophy of the Kama Sutra is to disregard how revolutionary this book actually is while in Europe at the time, sex was seen as a sin and should only ever be done for reproduction. What the Kama Sutra offered is a philosophy to achieve spirituality and a healthy intimate relationship with one’s partner, it was a book for both men and women which was unheard of at the time.
