Richard Gere gets some action in India

I generally don’t pay attention to the comings and goings of the man-children that inhabit Hollywood.  Richard Gere’s Indian imbrolio, however, is eminently newsworthy and deserving of analysis.  It reminds us of the continuing existence of sexism, racism and colonial arrogance in the world.

If you didn’t hear, Richard Gere created controversy in India a few days ago by flouting Indian mores and publicly kissing a semi-starlet, Shilpa Shetty, on stage.
  BBC NEWS – Gere kiss sparks India protests

Actor Richard Gere has sparked protests in India after kissing Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi. 

According to the BBC, some people are so worked up that they’re burning him and her in effigy, and even calling for her (yes, her) death. 

Demonstrators in Mumbai (Bombay) set light to effigies of the Hollywood
star, while protesters in other cities shouted "death to Shilpa Shetty".

This is a familiar pattern.  Fringe political groups, thugs and assorted rogues take to the streets to protest some perceived outrage against the pride of the nation.  It happens periodically in neighboring Pakistan, except that there the pretexts are often more overtly religious.  But it’s basically the same genus of losers seizing on the latest hot-button issue to stir up the masses and confer on these "activists" a false aura of leadership and relevance to the concerns of the common man.

That’s not to say that there isn’t much to be outraged about, though.  Richard Gere’s behavior was profoundly disturbing on multiple levels.  Note the creepy similarity of the photo to various famous images of rape from myth and literature (e.g., Poussin’s "The Rape of the Sabine Women" mentioned recently by  Lawrence of Arabia, or the many rape/abduction scenes in Greek and Roman myth such as that of Persephone ).

Take a look at the  clip on YouTube yourself.   He pretty much forced himself on her, even grabbing her butt at the end.   You really get the sense that was overcome with desire and figured why not exploit his status to get his jollies and flex his muscle as the alpha-male laying claim to the prettiest woman in the room. 

This he did on stage in front of a large crowd, with a woman he did not know, and in a society that until recently didn’t even allow the most chaste of embraces on screen.  India is still an extremely conservative society in a lot of ways.

And then he has the cheek and poor taste to bow with an elaborate flourish, as if there something gallant to his little date-rape rehearsal.   What a complete ass.

While many are no doubt angry for the wrong reasons–outrage at one of "their" women being manhandled by an outsider (as opposed to one of them, I suppose)–and though I’m disgusted at the attacks on Shetty for Gere’s misbehavior, when you get down to it it’s not surprising that people are up in arms, as there’s something viscerally disturbing about the sight of this aging white, American star bounding onto a stage in India and lecherously forcing himself onto a shocked local celebrity.  I’m sure it summons all sorts of memories colonial domination.  It’s like he’s a visiting feudal lord exercising some new droit du seigneur.

BTW, do you think in a million years that he’d dare pull a stunt like that with a young American actress at the Oscars?!?  But a little brown woman in a far off land gets quite different treatment.  (No need to treat her as an equal, ’cause she obviously isn’t, right?)

Finally, what an mind-bogglingly arrogant and inconsiderate lout this clip seems to reveal.   Gere obviously thinks himself such as galactic star, irresistible hunk,  and center of the universe that any "native" woman would happily be publicly and shamefully groped by him.

Update (2007-04-24)  Fixed broken link to video clip.

Update (2007-05-16):  Propaganda Machine makes an excellent point about how suggestive this scene was of rape:

Finally, I have seen enough Bollywood movies to imagine that if you could edit this footage and insert it into a typical Indian film with ominous music and the canonical dramatic thunderclap, it would suggest to the viewers that the woman was raped.