Popular Tamil magazine ‘Kumadam Reporter’, known to be a sensationalist magazine, is now at the centre of the controversy over a cover story on the trend of women wearing leggings. It has invited the ire of readers on social media, women journalists and activists.
The story talks about a ban on leggings in some colleges in Tamil Nadu and takes the views of various women. In the process of taking a high moral ground, the magazine has used images of women, in all probability without their permission, which is an invasion of their privacy. The magazine is crafty, and says that the pictures are not meant to invade the privacy of the women, but to show readers what some men and women think of “our mothers and sisters”.
There is also a poem from an anonymous male writer, stating that since men cannot change and will continue ogling at women, it is better women should change themselves. Reactions have poured out online on the story, which many see it as a voyeuristic attempt to grab readership while pretending to take a moral high ground.
Your recent edition is not only low but disgusting. A new low in Journalism! Shame.
—Pinky Rajpurohit, a reporter based in Chennai, writes on her Facebook wall
Several have pointed out that the magazine has crossed limits in not only daring to take pictures of women, possibly without their permission, but also presenting them in a vulgar manner and attempting to raise questions on choice of clothing, albeit in the words of others.
Why don’t you click men wearing lungis above their thigh and print out an issue? Are you f###### kidding me?????
— Chennai-resident in a Facebook post
A group of women journalists, writers and activist in Tamil Nadu are planning to release a statement condemning Kumudam for the article and protesting against it.
‘History of Misogyny’
This is not the first time Kumadam group’s magazines have been in trouble over controversial stories.
A few weeks back, one of the inside pages of a Kumudam group magazine printed a picture of a woman, asking “Na enna seppa figure ah?” which loosely translates to, “Am I a bad-looking chick?”
Few years back, the magazine had a series called “Oru Nadigayin Kadhai” (An actress’ story) which degraded women. It was after protests that the magazine pulled it back.
Kumudham has a history of misogyny. On one hand they generously use photos of actors to boost their sales and on the other they freely indulge in moral policing. Their cover story on leggings is definitely a new low for Tamil journalism. But not new considering Kumudham’s standards.
— Kavitha Muralidharan, a senior journalist based in Chennai
She says that the magazine should be concentrating on other burning issues instead.
Women wearing leggings have been favourite targets of many in the recent past, with even senior writers making misogynistic, sexist comments for wearing tight-fitting leggings.
In May this year, Malayalam writer and Secretary of the Kerala Book Marketing Society Babu Kuzhimattom wrote about leggings and why women should be “submissive”, and the connection between the two is apparently a “lingachalanam” – roughly translated as having an erection.
In a Facebook post, the 59-year-old writer recounted an incident in Thiruvananthapuram when his car swerved, because his driver was distracted.
Only for adults … My driver… 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 lingachalanam). There was a sexy woman, with perfect curves and shape, of age around 40 standing on the roadside without dress...
Lesson No 1 in Feminist Theory – This is a classic example of what Laura Mulvey called the “male gaze”. This means men and women look at the male body as if it is normal, and that there is something out of the ordinary with the female body. Using images of women’s butts in such a manner, just body shames them more, in a world in which thin women are considered good-looking.
Editor of the magazine John refused to comment.
(Anisha Sheth with inputs from Ramanathan S. The duo work with The News Minute)
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