How Social Media is Changing Lahiri’s “Sexy” — Plus Quiz
How do you feel right now? Are you dating anyone? How is that going for you? Good? Bad? Not sure? Cuffing season recently ended in March and April (blame it on the retrograde if you’re into that). We’ve seen it in all couples, from celebrities to your everyday high school lovebirds. Almost no one survived this one. Those of you who did, congratulations! But how do you feel? Feel, different?
Jhumpa Lahiri is the creator of the short story “Sexy,” which focuses on an affair between two main characters: Dev, an upper-classed man, who plays an inferior role to his wife, and Miranda, an insecure and uncultured woman from a small town. The story took place in 1998 when it was written, a world far different from today, at least technologically.
The relationship that Miranda had with Dev fulfilled, at least for a while, her need to feel desirable in some way. Dev used her insecurities to his own advantage by complimenting her body, making her feel like she was sexy and desirable to him. The relationship that Miranda had with Dev had started off hot and passionate, with Dev using his language to control Miranda, but the relationship soon trailed off into nothing more than a routined twelve minutes a week. She first began to feel sexier and more confident with herself after meeting and affairing with Dev. His words and actions boosted her sexuality, like when he commented on her figure, saying that she is was, “the first woman I’ve [Dev] known with legs this long.”
Let’s remember that Dev is a married man who came on to Miranda, a young eligible woman. Why is Dev being unfaithful to his wife in the first place? and why does Miranda, who is fully aware that Dev is married, continue the affair for so long?
Why do we cheat? Why do we crave something more than what we already have? In the past, I have been on both sides of Miranda’s story. I have played the part as a mistress and I have been cheated on in a relationship. Reading “Sexy” infuriated me. Going over the class discussion, many people felt sympathetic with Miranda, whilst I felt anger and disgust with her character. I wanted to scream into her face. What a dirty character, what an incompetent fool. How dare she play this role.
It lead me to many questions. I wanted to know, why do we do it? How can someone stay in a relationship and cheat on the person that they love? Do they even love them? Did they ever? On the other hand, why do we knowingly do something so wrong? Something we would never wish someone else to do upon us? Are we all destined to be like Dev or Miranda?
Back in 1998, when this story was written, people who engaged in affairs did it much differently than we do today. In today’s world, we use social media. We don’t meet in a beauty department like Dev and Miranda, we add each other on Snapchat or Instagram or Twitter; really any social media does the trick.
H*ck social media. In our modern age, this is where affairs flourish. It’s secretive and easy to connect with anyone from anywhere at any time. How would the relationship that Dev and Miranda shared have been different if it was set 20 years into the future with today’s social media? Easy. I can tell you right now that their affair would have continued with the help of apps like Snapchat, where they could easily send *nasty* pictures and messages, all of which are forever gone within ten seconds.
Let’s say for example that Dev and Miranda are real people in the year 2018. Instead of meeting in person, the pair met on social networks. That is where they would communicate for some time, before finally meeting. And this is where it becomes like Lahiri’s version, a routine twelve minutes a week. However, instead of the relationship just breaking off due to the pair beingunable to meet, they have the advantage of media to keep in contact and enjoy each other’s company without even being with each other physically.
Let’s see how Dev is doing in 2018.
Oh Dev, you business man with your special business newspaper. Let’s throw you into 2018, and suddenly there’s a cellphone nearby, always nearby. You just can’t go without it. It holds information for meetings; business ones and intimate ones. You saucy dog. Where are you right now?
Oh don’t you worry Dev, Miranda knows where you are! She tracks your location! She knows when you’re with your wife and when you’re not. But couldn’t your wife do the same thing? Can’t she track you as well? Not if you turn off your phone before leaving the office, nice trick Devy. Say the phone died and you couldn’t get a charger. Understandable, right?
Miranda, darling. Honey. What are you doing? Oh, I get it. We all want to feel loved. We all want attention. Dev gives you attention, you take it. It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or right. The attention is yours so take it! Before he gives it back to his wife. If you play your cards right, maybe he’ll leave her for you. Hmmm… too bad your only friend will hate you forever and ever if she found out that you stole a married man away.
Why do we do this to each other? Look at this phone. Look at your phone. Look at where you are. Do you like where you are? Who are you? Do you like who you are? Or who you are with? Are we all looking for attention? Dominance? Craving something that will make us feel sexy?
If you want to know how you might fit into all of this,
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Read the story here: “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri
