50 Things Our Generation Should Talk About More Freely

Taboos were originally meant to protect individuals from running into unfavorable circumstances or preserving something sacred, as mentioned before. But the meaning of taboo has changed drastically, categorizing topics into taboos that don’t belong there. The current situations of the society would be better if they were talked about openly and not considered a taboo.

Things to Talk About More Freely by Our Generation 

Failure

Unless we move through failure, we would never know what victory is. Failure should be talked about more rather than joking/taunting about it.

Personal Space

Research from the University College of London settled that parents who are unreasonably controlling, trespassing their child’s privacy, not letting them make their own choices, and reinforcing dependency on parents can cause their kids’ permanent psychological harm. Children should surely indulge in a debate about such subjects, without thinking about guilt and later consequences.

Cancer

In an era when the internet empowers us to be more open about our lives than ever before, why do people proceed to be secretive about their cancer diagnosis? It is a disease where the ill should spread awareness, not just sit mum as if it was a matter of shame, please!

Economic Education

Becoming a “service class babu” is considered the most prestigious and financially safe career in our society (in some cases a father will only let his daughter marry a service class babu), so Indian parents will never teach you anything about finance, just study hard to pass all exams. But that’s utterly wrong! Ever tried reading Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’? If you haven’t, then you must.

Inter-Religious Friendships

Unnecessary to state, if the friendship is genuine, religion can be sidelined and, the grown-ups need to understand.

Live-in Relationships

If not society, our courts have recognized the developing dimensions and very well received the expanding global trend of live-in relationships. A boy and a girl who are not minors, with their bilateral agreement can live together in a physical relationship without staying married.

Atheism

Religion should be a lifestyle option, but more than that, religion needs to be secluded. It can’t be politicized, nor made into a dogma for the masses. Being an atheist is not a violation, it is an element of understanding.

Women Smoking

Just as a man sobbing on the phone in a cafe will seem irrelevant and reap attention similarly a woman smoking right outside that cafe will raise eyebrows. She will be looked at and assessed as ‘immoral’ just as the man will be as ‘weak’. Smoking is bad for health, not for character.

Pre-marital Pregnancy

A substantial number of women feel they have to abort secretly rather than bring disgrace to their parents. Young women, if the word gets out, will never find suitors after an unwanted pregnancy as society brands them as prostitutes, because they had a relationship outside marriage.

Depression

Needless to say, depression is not a mental state, it’s a sickness. That certainly calls for a doctor.

Drinking

Alcohol is taboo in India because the Vedic principles and founding fathers condemned it as sinful. But again, it’s your choice.

Public Display Of Affection

Speaking out loud about sentiments is not approved, forget about flaunting it in society. Let’s not restrain ourselves. Let us exist freely.

Drugs and Drug Abuse

Drug removals from the market were made mainly due to safety concerns involving cardiovascular events (57.14%) and liver damage (14.28%). Fair enough. But keeping quiet about drug abuse is unacceptable.

Eating beef or pork

In general, cattle slaughter is an offensive crime in India. But if there are people who eat, then they should not be restrained.

Love Marriages

Love marriages are looked down upon within the Indian culture and ritual because it is a shift away from the standards of arranged marriages. These are the various interconnected hurdles that women have to cross if they have to make a decision regarding their marriage on their own.

Legalization of Sex Workers/Prostitution

Not arguing about prostitution itself the law in India about this is notably obscure. The law administering the status of sex workers in 1956, also known as “The Immoral Traffic” asserted that prostitutes can exercise their trade privately but cannot legally solicit customers in public. Seriously when people actually hire prostitutes, what’s wrong with saying that out?

Widow/Widower

Since ages, Hindu widows and even widowers are considered unlucky and inauspicious, as a result of which they are treated as outcasts in their own houses. This is as if they were the ones who murdered their spouses. Like come on, it is NOT their fault that they are widows/widowers, so please end up with this discrimination already!

Abortion

Notwithstanding almost 50 years of the incorporation of the MTP act and the justification of women’s right to abort, abortion still remains a hotly disputed and taboo subject in India.

Divorce

Marriage is a sacred institution and, divorce is taboo in Indian society. Although the situation is developing as the modern generation is becoming singular and autonomous, the concept of divorce is still grimaced upon in India.

Body Hair in Women

Social beauty standards are brutal. Thanks to the advertisements and media these days, women are coerced into believing that body hair is gross.

Second Marriage

Formerly second marriages were considered taboo and, people who get a divorce were thought of poorly. Although the conditions are somewhat improving because the number of people opting for a second marriage is increasing, the view of society remains unchanged.

LGBTQ+ Community

It is said that love has no boundaries, it is an involuntary decision, which means, we do not have the choice to choose who we fall in love with. But in the age-old Indian society, the LGBTQ+ community is often looked down upon by society.

Sex Education

Sex in India has a ‘hush-hush’ air about it since long back. Although some schools are trying to include bits of it in the school curriculum, we need a proper course about ‘sex education’ to aware children of teen pregnancy, HIV, AIDS, and other STDs.

Staying Single

“To marry or not to marry is a choice that all people deserve to have. However, in a society where individual agency is often overruled by parental sentiments, social pressure, and outdated stigmas, it is a luxury to have a say in the matter of matrimony, even today, for many Indian women”, as quoted by SheThe People.

Marrying an Older Woman

It is not a taboo but nevertheless encouraged so by our ancestral community. Whatever the religion, state, or language they belong to our Indian society has this unwritten rule. But again, age is just a number. So if you think you can be happy, then why not?

Masturbation

We all know that self-pleasure is salubrious for both men and women and will not affect your ability to enjoy or your fertility. It will not lead to any other health problems in men or women. There is no reason to feel condemned about it. It’s a simple physical release that should be enjoyed, devoid of guilt.

Contraception

One of the biggest reasons for not using contraceptive methods in India is the lack of knowledge, leading to a population explosion in many rural areas.

Infertility

In India, having babies is supposed to be the social norm, and being childless relates to social shame. Sterility continues to have a profound effect on the psychological as well as social well-being of women, as compared to men across the country.

Opening Up After Rape and Harassment

Be it a male, or a female, opening up after going through such an animal-like treatment is difficult. While women are the ones who are blamed for wearing ‘short clothes’ after getting raped, the harassment of males gets shrouded in the shadows.

Breastfeeding in public

Here’s a news-flash for you! The true biological reason and significance of women’s breasts are to feed human babies. Eureka! There’s nothing sexual about breastfeeding a child. A mother breastfeeds her child, not to flaunt her cleavage, not because she seeks your attention, and not to try and turn you on. The only purpose a mother breastfeeds is to sustain and nurture her baby. Nothing more, nothing less!

Domestic Violence Against Men

Just because most of the violence happens against women, does not mean that all women are innocent. Contrarily, just because men commit violence against women, does not mean men are always at wrong. That says it all.

Teenage Relationships

“No matter how many rules you apply, your teenager is probably dating somebody out there, you need to accept it and talk to them about it instead of scaring them so much that a random “pados wali aunty” has to tell you about it”, says ED Times.

Incestual Relationships

It is not a crime if two approving grown-ups get entangled in an incestuous bond. They do not provoke any constitutional provision by doing so but might irritate the thoughts of the civilization at large.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Sexologists

Sex is still a taboo in India, where people want to stay anonymous even while discussing their sex life with doctors. Although the covers are slowly coming off, people are now open about their problems to doctors, be it masturbation addiction, less satisfaction, or STDs.

A man’s income (a hopeless taboo)

A man’s wages must never be questioned because, it symbolizes you are judging him according to how much he earns and overlooking other relevant factors, like his responsiveness, intellect, progress, etc.

A woman’s age (hopeless taboo-2)

Asking her age infuses a tinge of uncertainty about her appeal, which instantly becomes the base of wayward thoughts about her duties towards family and their status in society. Implying that society perceives her age as a yardstick for achievements in her life, like marriage, child, etc.

Being Yourself

Opening up about your dreams and aspirations is one of the most challenging tasks for youth. This is mostly because today’s parents are more about forcing their opinions on the students in the name of a successful career. And such behavior of parents naturally causes them to keep quiet, rather than indulge in a serious argument.

Dressing sense

Not as much as a taboo, but possibly a social standard that people are expected to meet. “Look at that girl…She’s trying to show off her body” or “Look at that boy! He looks so weird!” When the concerned person and their guardians have no issue, then why are we so bothered?

Virginity

Just smashing a myth, a woman’s hymen has nothing to do with virginity. Some are born without it, for some, the hymen is so elastic that it does not rupture even after sexual intercourse, while for some it is so fragile, that even a small activity as lifting a load can make it rupture. So the men basically running to the sexologists saying, “How can I verify my wife or girlfriend is a virgin or not” or “My wife did not bleed on the wedding night” are primarily making unrealistic demands to satisfy his and his family’s inflated ego.

Visible Bra Straps

Women wear bras as their innerwear. It is analogically equal to the vest that men wear under their shirts. So why get provoked if her bra strap is visible? The same straps when seen on the body of heroines in the film industry are appreciated. Then why is this receiving hate in everyday life?

Pedophilia

The standard description of pedophilia is a strong and persistent sexual attraction to prepubescent children or those in the early stages of puberty. Let’s look at that statement again. It never said that pedophilic people molest children. It just mentioned that they are sexually attracted to children who are not adolescent yet. This thing is self-discovered and not chosen. So unless they enact on their attraction, is it right to hate or outcast these people?

Stripping Clubs and Strippers

Many of us did not know if a country like India really had stripping clubs? Well yes, there are numerous stripping clubs across India. As said, the need for employment can take us anywhere, so why not stripping as employment? Of course, we are not promoting such a business as it depends on the concerned person. But there is nothing secretive about it.

Fetus-Sex Revelation

Ever wondered why examining the sex of a fetus is a baby? The reason is the brutal practice of female foeticide. For those who do not know, fetus sex revelation is NOT a crime in other countries.

Pornography

Nowadays, pornography impacts almost every teenager’s sex information, particularly boys. Some toxic and disturbing hardcore porn is less than 10 clicks away from a teenager. It is a topic that youth should be talked to, since watching porn induces their knowledge unrealistically, which may have an impact on their sex lives later.

Menstruation Cycles

Thanks to the advertisement of brands like Stayfree and Whisper, almost everyone understands what a menstruation cycle is. Then what is the purpose of enveloping that packet of pads in a newspaper and placing it in black polythene? What is the aim of barring females on their periods from visiting temples or rites or from accessing the kitchen? Are they outcast?

Death

Death is deemed one of the gravest procedures of life in various countries. Even in India, speaking about death, touching a dead’s family, and accompanying their rites is considered inauspicious and unholy, needing immediate baths and purifications. Death should simply be seen as a mere change of clothes, where the soul leaves one body, and moves into the other, as mentioned in the Bhagwad Gita already.

Sex

Having talked so much about topics concerning sex, sex, on the whole, is a big taboo in India. Really ironic since the country that gave the ultimate literary texts on sex now considers sex as a taboo.

Caste-Biased Discrimination

Not taking to a great level, but everyone has been maintaining some sort of social distancing long before COVID-19 from sweepers, separating the dishes of our maids, and much more. But one thing to notice is that the profession decides whether the person is of a lower class or a higher class. Just because he is a sweeper or she is a maid, does not indicate a lower cast status. Whatever their cast be, they all are humans and they help us in our daily lives. Respect them.

Patriarchy

“Even though God created men and women as equal, it’s the men of religion who decided that women should be dominated and controlled. Men of religion have a lot of discomfort about the woman’s body and her sexuality. We need to bust the patriarchy masquerading as a religion”, quoted Zakia Soman, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan at Outlook Speakout 2019.

Phobias

Although everyone experiences some kind of fear, a phobia is when fear becomes constant, extreme, and unreasonable in the socio-economic context. Once you realize that some fallacious fear is hindering your personal life, it’s time to pay a visit to a mental health specialist. This is nothing to be ashamed of or staying anonymous.

Having highlighted these taboos, I must acknowledge that there are many such taboos that India is slowly overcoming. We know that Indian culture is very colorful and vibrant, often known for ‘unity in diversity’ but we surely can’t ignore the darker side of the coin.

Raising awareness on the darker issues such as these is the first step to a healthy and sustainable society because talking about social taboos will surely help others in hopes that a conversation can lead to some digressed minds.