After a recent cover story on women wearing leggings by Tamil new magazine Kumudam Reporter went viral on social media, a senior journalist from Tamil Nadu Kavitha Muralidharan has filed a petition on change.org asking the magazine to apologize for the story which insults women.
The petition says, “Kumudam’s editor and managing director have refused to comment on this story. They’re refusing to acknowledge that their magazine has done anything wrong. Sadly, this is not the first time that Kumudam has demeaned women. They have run many such sensational stories where they degrade women. Kumudam has to be held accountable!”
The petition also highlights that several pictures that were published were taken without the consent of the women. The petition also talks about a poem by an anonymous male author- ‘who says men can’t help but ogle women’.
The current cover story talks about a ban on leggings in some colleges in Tamil Nadu and takes the views of various women. In the process of making the story sensational, the magazine has printed candid shots of women in leggings, in an unflattering way.
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.
Kavitha Muralidharan,told The News Minute, “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.”
At the time of writing, more than 5,500 people had signed the pettion. Kavitha Muralitharan says in the petition, “If we make Kumudam apologize, other media outlets will think twice before running ‘stories’ such as this”.