It appears that a section of people in Kerala simply cannot leave leggings alone.
On May 26, Malayalam writer and Secretary of the Kerala Book Marketing Society Babu Kuzhimattom waxed eloquent about leggings and why women should be “submissive”, and the connection between the two is apparently a “lingachalanam” – roughly translated as having an erection.
The 59-year-old writer was being driven around the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, when an incident occurred. Kuzhimattom’s description of that event would qualify him for the book version of the Rotten Coconut Awards.
This is his magnum opus in full (roughly translated into English from Malayalam), as posted on Facebook: “Only for adults ……………………..A Yesterday from Ambalamukku junction my car slightly skidded to one side. My driver who was appointed by Kerala Government is young and a bachelor. He doesn’t have any bad habits, but still he could not control himself. How can we blame him? The sight we saw on the roadside aroused even me sexually (the Malayalam word used is lingachalanam, meaning to get an erection). There was a sexy woman, with perfect curves and shape, of age around 40 standing on the roadside without dress. Later my driver Vishaq told me that she was dressed but used skin-coloured leggings, which Yesudas misunderstood as jeans. For men just a sight is enough for arousal, but for women foreplay is necessary. Some feminists and transgendered poets who don’t know this fact may call my driver a pervert. This is why experienced elderly people say that women should be homely and submissive.”
The writer’s views have been lambasted for their regressiveness, but he isn’t the only one. Actor Salim Kumar too has in the past made some nasty remarks about women wearing leggings while Jesudas did not like women wearing jeans in particular, and hoped that women “hide all that should be hidden”.