Suppressed Sexuality in Gendered Institutions: A Re-examination of Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy

Abstract

Socializing factors like, schools, parents, peer groups, and legal forces etc. all of them combine together to alienate women from fulfilling their own sexual desires and transform their sexual appetites into a subdued residue. The double standard of sexual morality forbade certain sexual activities for women while permitting the same actions for men. Women themselves know very well that they are not permitted by society to express their sexual feelings or even to enjoy sex in many contexts. Amitav Ghosh explores this double standard of sexual morality in his novels.He stresses on the need to deconstruct the cultural construct of sexual morality, which prohibited certain sexual behaviours for women while approving the same behaviours for men. Through an exploration of mainly Ghosh’s The River of Smoke, Sea of Poppies and Flood of Fire I have shown that the political purposes of men have often been rested on restraining women from enjoying satisfying sexual pleasure. Sexuality is not at all as restricted or as palpable as most of us believe. I have also argued in this paper that the restriction on human sexual activity to the lone task of producing babies is not at all a natural requirement, but it is the outcome of a very precise cultural construction.