Is it surprising that Section 497, a law selectively criminalising adultery, took so long to be struck down? Sadly, no. The law, according to which a man who had sex
with another man's wife was committing a crime against the husband, while a husband who had sex outside his marriage was not committing a crime against the wife he betrayed, reflected an attitude with deep, hard roots in our social structures.

Most societies see men's desire — sexual, professional, creative — as natural and central. Women exist for men to have sex with, not as independent sexual beings with their own desires, and springing from those desires, sexual choices. That is one reason why, even when we speak about queer sexuality, the usual images are of gay men. Queerness is rarely represented through images of lesbian women.