O-ZONE: The New Sexy!

Is the new size zero Bebo sexy? Do women wearing sports jerseys look sexy — a la Katrina Kaif, Preity Zinta and Kareena Kapoor? Are cushy bums sexy or a put-off? Is a jiggly cleavage desirable or sheer desperate? Is a beefcake (heavily muscled guy) drool stuff or pukey?

Who is to take a call on what is sexy and what not? Has the definition of “sexy” changed over the years? We knew sexy as a bad word — to be sexy was to be a “bad girl” arousing forbidden urges in men. Vamps were sexy and heroines good, innocent and attractive. Much adrenaline has flown from then to today, when “sexy” is a coveted status. Today, sexy has lost its gender or sex relevance and has come to mean many things — in fact, it’s one of the most casually used words. People hail cars as sexy; bars, restaurants and cities as sexy; dogs as sexy — why even thoughts are considered sexy! An animal rights ad suggests that pasta and vegetables can be sexy! What next? Remember the Govinda-Karishma number... Mere shoes bhi sexy, meri pant bhi sexy, meri shirt bhi sexy....ye rumaal bhi sexy...? So stretched is the definition today that anything or anyone attractive can be given the epithet, “sexy”. The one big change of course is that sexy today is good news, not bad anymore...

And yet, is sexy a physical attribute or does it go beyond? Is sexy something that slams you in the gut and gets the juices flowing, or is sexy an attitude that attracts? Does the sex quotient reside in the body, face, eyes or mind? Or does it actually have nothing to do with the object, but everything to do with the beholder? Is sexy something tangible or is it a wispy imaginative quality that keeps shifting and changing with varying perspectives?
Madhubala’s slanted smile and flirtatious gaze, Nimmi’s pout and wounded eyes; Meena Kumari’s sensual voice and stricken look; Madhuri Dixit’s lip caught between her teeth and dhak-dhak bosom — and today, Kareena’s size zero jutting bones and vanished curves — some of our sexiest heroines — what’s common between them all? Physical attributes? From a Meena Kumari to a Kareena? Certainly not that! They were all beautiful women, who displayed great confidence and a certain attitude peculiar to themselves. It wasn’t so much in their curves or lack of them that they carried their sexiness, but in their attitude, and perhaps in their eyes.

Shah Rukh and Kareena have no doubt redefined fitness and thinness with their newly-sculpted figures. But even as those show boys slog it out, coaxing out a few pectorals or a perfect six-pack and the show girls starve themselves to reduce to size zeroes; even as men become more sculpted and women bid goodbye to good ole curves, one wonders if the definition of sexy is changing? No, not really. Sexy today is still as sexy does. It’s not in their thinness or form, but in something beyond that their sexiness resides.

If the new Kareena is sexy, so should be the thousands of malnourished girls whose gaunt looks, sculpted cheekbones and protruding ribs have nothing to do with power yoga, soups and salads, but a lot to do with utter poverty and lack of a good, balanced diet. So what is it that makes Kareena sexy and not those girls? It’s her attitude, her confidence, the spring in her step, the knowing look in her eyes — her come-hither attitude.

If Shah Rukh Khan with his six-pack has upped his sex quotient, how does he compare with the original six-packers — millions of labourers, rickshaw pullers and farmers whose muscles have nothing to do with workouts and hormone injections, and everything to do with sheer physical labour?

Ask around and you will discover sexy is more a matter of perspective than of rules and definition. A quick poll had different men settling for a woman’s face, legs, curves, smile, body language or bust as a quotient of her sexiness. Women went for a man’s eyes, height, intelligence, looks, sense of humour, chivalry, body smell or six packs!

And yet, ask them if anyone had these attributes but no sense of style, no confidence, no attitude — and the sexiness goes out of the window! They quickly settled for attitude over everything else! Recently, nearly 75 per cent Americans polled said that sexiness is more an attitude than in the perfect physique. More than 76 per cent even went on to say that a woman can be sexy even she was a size 14 or larger!

You either are sexy, or you aren’t. There’s nothing you can do to your body to make you sexy; but there’s plenty you can do to your attitude and your mind that makes you sexy.