Kumudam's bizarre defense, says 'leggings' story was in public interest

Well, what can we say? It’s the investigation of the year – the dangerous effect that a certain type of innocuous-looking cloth can have on society and women in particular.

Kumudam Reporter has truly done a great service to the women of this country. Heck, to women everywhere (at least regions adjoining the Indian sub-continent). After all, the women of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere who wear the salwar kameez might imitate the women of India and wear that dangerous garment – leggings – whose ill effects no one else thought to investigate.

Earlier this week, Tamil magazine Kumudam Reporter had published a cover story on the pros and cons of leggings. The story took the views of “people especially parents and got their views and opinions on leggings and then only published in our magazine last week”.

One of the people the magazine spoke to is a doctor who was an expert on a social condition called morality, which particularly afflicts women, especially those who wear leggings. The effects of the condition, however, appear to be visible only to the doctor quoted, and Kumudam, which first came across it, and therefore decided to investigate.

Coming back to the good doctor’s sage advice: women should wear proper clothes as blood circulation comes down because of leggings, and that chances of urinary and other infections are also high.

This doctor is one of the factors that Kumudam Reporter’s Associate Editor K Kubendran referred to when telling the world just how grateful it should be for the service it has done.

In a statement released on Friday, Kubendran said:

“We often get to see gory accident pictures of hands, legs and headless bodies in newspapers and news channels that bothers our minds. Awareness videos produced by Police dept often shows  people with blood dripping on them taken in ambulances which breaks our heart many times. Some people can’t stand blood, few vomit if they see blood, few faint and for many it’s a disgusting feeling. But do they go fight against these and demand an explanation for showing all these pictures?”

This is what it says next:

“In a similar manner, for the past two months we have interviewed people especially parents and got their views and opinion on leggings and then only published in our magazine last week. Kumudam Reporter is not here to interfere or discuss on dresses that women wear. Society’s view is to create awareness and bring in regulations which both genders  should follow by avoiding wearing inappropriate dresses in public places.”

Us poor women don’t know how or why clothing “regulations” are needed in public spaces.

Kumudam Reporter further explains:

“Based on public’s opinion and to reach people to create awareness, we published this article. Through this we do not intend to criticize women and interfere in their rights and also hurt their feelings. In our Leggings article we have put forth the viewpoints of both sides. Kumduam Reporter never said “Not to wear Leggings”. Parents comments on leggings, doctors opinion on its health related issues have to be valued is our sole intention. The opinion in the article does not violate anybody’s rights and that’s not our intention also.”

Well, we wonder how then, did Kumudam Reporter’s photographers manage to get women to pose on bikes and on the streets and reveal their clothed, imperfectly but normally shaped and sized butts for the magazine.

And no word on the photographs, other than a bizarre comparison with gory pictures that shock the hell out of us.  Meanwhile, a petition asking Kumudam to apologise has gathered more than 15,000 signatures.