Women Back on Top in New Kamasutra Sex Manual
http://news.excite.com/article/id/222824|oddlyenough|03-28-2002::09:06|reuters.html
March 28, 2002 9:01 am EST
By Pete Harrison
LONDON (Reuters) - A new edition of the 1,700-year-old Sanskrit sex manual, the Kamasutra, hits bedside tables this month but this time around women's needs have wrestled themselves on top.
'The new translation of the Kamasutra...reflects the original emphasis on a woman's pleasure and the importance of gratifying her' says the Oxford University Press in its promotional materials.
Women have started getting a better deal since the Kamasutra was first translated for Victorian England -- at work, at home and in bed. With the changing times, nuances that were overlooked the first time around have now come to light.
'When you read the original, there's a lot of very feisty women -- women getting men to do what they want, women getting rid of them when they're bored' Wendy Doniger, who co-translated the new Oxford edition, told Reuters.
Not that Sir Richard Burton, who published his translation 1883, could be judged conservative or accused of censorship.
'He was absolutely revolutionary,' said Doniger. 'To publish it at all in that era was spectacular, but after 100 years we can do a lot better.'
Doniger said stigmas of the day clouded Burton's vision, resulting in something of a boys-own version of the Kamasutra, originally written by Indian sex guru Vatsyayana Mallanaga.
'Victorian society had a schizophrenic attitude to women,' said Doniger. By day, she said, men played Dr. Jekyll and treated their womenfolk as paragons of untouchable purity. By night they degenerated into the salacious Mr. Hyde.
'The sado-masochist dens of vice in London put a huge strain on men's attitudes to women and that comes out in Burton's Kamasutra,' said Doniger.
DIFFERENT WORLDS
Female submission was a given so where the Indian text, for example, advised women on to scold an unfaithful male, Burton lost the plot.
'Where it advises yelling, I think Burton couldn't imagine that women could have that kind of privilege,' said Doniger. 'He couldn't believe it possible.'
He was, apparently, just as numb to women's needs in bed.
'In one place it reads 'When he touches her and sees her eyes roll around, he should press harder', Doniger said. 'Burton missed that altogether.'
Best known in the West for its graphic tips on sexual gymnastics, the slick new edition of the Kamasutra, to be launched on March 28, will not disappoint inquisitive couples.
Here's a typical bit from Book Two, Chapter 6: 'When one of her feet is placed on the man's shoulder and the other is stretched out, this is called 'splitting the bamboo'...When one of her legs is raised above her head...it is called impaling on a stake.'
But Doniger's revised love manual also contains several chapters aimed at women alone -- 'Ways to get money from him,' 'Ways to get rid of him' and 'Methods of increasing the size of the male organ.'
Whether men will take the hint and become more giving in bed remains to be seen. But traditional males might find solace in some of the less politically correct chapters -- most notably 'Women who can be won without effort.'
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