I’ve begun to divide my nights, over the course of only three consecutive ones. The nights BS (Before Sunny) and those AS (After Sunny). Currently living in the first era, these nights consist of poring over the literary porn that Sunny Leone is bestowing upon us.
There have been two already, the third comes out tonight, with four more in the offing.
Her third chapter in her book of erotica, Sweet Dreams, is called New Year’s Eve, and it is, to put it rather bluntly, about how one New Year’s Eve made a woman realise she needed a man’s validation to lose weight and become awesome.
Here’s the thing about the latest chapter. It’s impossible, for a female reader, to not associate themselves on some level with Leone’s protagonist Alia. The latter talks in pain, through her narration, of her ‘dumpiness’ and ‘frumpiness’ and how she’s never considered herself attractive. Not exactly cutting-edge stuff, but you’re willing to hold out for the inevitable self-metamorphosis.
You just didn’t think it would happen at the altar of a man who rejected her.
Here’s how that works. Our ‘unattractive, plump’ female lead attends a New Year’s party, where she eye-to-eyes (Taher Shah would’ve been proud) a very ‘attractive’ stranger. The stranger induces strange oestrogen-fuelled reactions though, as Alia is already sweating and swooning, for “no man has ever made her feel this way before”. (Er, really? After one chance meet-and-greet?)
The bubble is burst, however, when she overhears him laughing about her to his friends and calling her ‘fat’. She leaves, heartbroken and cursing her dumpiness. Also, begins journey of life-changing proportions.
(Once again, they just met that night.)
What follows is a stream of the bizarre. Alia “goes into depression” for a few months (er, really?) and then transforms into thinner, confident, yet-somehow-still-desperately-dependent-on-men-for-approval kinda shiny ball.
So shiny that she can “look at herself in the mirror again”.
Also, joy! The family that cribbed about her weight and called her a ‘cow’ to her face (how nice) have started calling her “beautiful”, reducing her to tears of happiness.
Of course, she meets her New Year’s man again, and proves that she has learnt no lessons whatsoever since the ball dropped (pun intended).
We’re sorry about this one. The story not only does nothing for a positive body image, it also inverts your knowledge of gender dynamics. And your knowledge of family (it’s perfectly okay to call your daughter the bovine type and scream ‘beautiful’ when she’s lost weight). Not to mention your knowledge of self-love (you may lose weight but gain no perspective).
Don’t read this one. Watch Mean Girls again.
(You can read New Year’s Eve and the remaining stories in Sweet Dreams on the Juggernaut app for Android phones.)
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