Slumdog Millionaire

Kissing. It’s wonderful, it’s awesome, and apparently it’s controversial. Seriously. Kissing.

Yes, this:

Giphy

Or if you prefer, your passionate smooch with a little less Dr. Who, then kissing looks like this:

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And I’ll give our so inclined readers a moment to get over Mr. Gosling.

Back with me? Ok, so kissing (stop looking up!), it’s pretty awesome. The times I’ve gotten lucky enough to convince someone to join me in a liplock have been pretty amazing.

Apparently though, that’s not everyone’s theory.

In India, local “moral police” are reacting with outrage and even violence when people are caught kissing in public.

This was the reaction after a local cafe in Kerala's Kozhikode was known to allow young people to kiss while getting coffee. (Apologies for the ad-its not ours-and the lack of english, you can still follow the idea with the shocking visuals in the video.)

Yeah, I’ve thought about throwing things when the person I wanted to kiss was kissing someone else, but I don’t really get the outrage over the concept of kissing. In fact, if someone was getting in my face about kissing I’d probably react pretty badly.

Fortunately, a group of people in India are much calmer and cooler than me. A group of young people have been staging “kiss ins” (you know like, sit ins but with kissing-so inherently more fun).

The Kiss of love protests, have been spreading over the last two to three months, with even political angles being widely discussed.

This morals based conflict in India is not new, back in 2007 actor Richard Gere made international headlines with his public kiss of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during an AIDS awareness program. The reaction to Mr. Gere’s included an arrest warrant and a sprint to the airport to avoid detention.

But back to the present. Under pressure from cultural conservatives in India, people are fighting back with the power of the kiss.

Beyond the Kiss of Love protests, the movement is taking to social media with a vengeance. A Facebook group already has over 150,000 members.

And twitter is filling up with inspirational messages about how kisses can fight fascism, fear and hate.

And while these kissing heroes have filled the internet and some streets with their passionate spit swapping, it has not all gone peacefully.

With this cultural clash going on in India-and many many like it going on around the world- it’s important to remember the power of love.

Not necessarily the lifelong love some of my friends feel for that hunky Mr. Gosling (if you’re confused, look at top of article and you’ll get it), but the love that is acceptance. Acceptance of ideas and actions that may seem strange to us. Acceptance of people’s public displays of affection and even respect for those who feel it isn’t appropriate (but don’t break things over it). So to support this kiss of love movement, and its ideological siblings going on throughout the world I end with this:

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Yeah, that’s the way to handle a problem. Well played Indian activists, you’ve taught me something again.

Would you kiss for public happiness? Tell me about it in the comments.

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Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

TopicsIndiaBrandon Blackburn-Dwyer

Editorial

Demand Equity

This group is trying to stop people from kissing

By Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer