“The secret is that the secret changes”: Sex and Taboo in India and Indian Young Adult Fiction

Mainstream film and media in India constantly expose children and young adults to sexually explicit, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic content, while opposing the need for sex education in schools – a dichotomy which exposes a deep-rooted taboo regarding sex and sexuality education that perpetuates situations like the spate of gruesome rapes and child sexual abuse across the country in the last decade. To examine this paradox and its effects, this paper does a close reading of a few select contemporary young adult novels as a form of rebellion against prevalent taboos regarding sex and sexuality in India and a subversive mode of sexuality education among its young adult readers. Issues of slut-shaming, revenge porn and blackmail, online abuse and consent are predominant in these books and this paper explores the detrimental effects of this persistent taboo about sex among youth in India through these books – Mayil Will Not be Quiet! (2008), Mostly Madly Mayil (2013), This is Me, Mayil (2018), Facebook Phantom (2013), Talking of Muskaan (2014) and The Lies We Tell (2019) – and address the critical silence regarding Sex and Young Adults in India. It attempts to do so by studying the texts against the definitions and development of the taboos and prejudices about sex and sexuality across Indian history and culture which continue to be used in the argument against the need for sex education for young adults, which this paper reads as an act of exerting power to control the private lives and personal choices of minors.