It’s Women’s Day and so obviously there’s more Pink in the air than static electricity in Bengaluru. Brands are telling us how much women matter to them, why women must be celebrated, how women hold up half the sky; men are sharing post after post on why there’s-no-one-like-my-mother, and of course that beautiful sketch of the woman who has 10,000 hands and is doing 20,000 chores without complaining will be witnessed at least once on the interwebs. Women. Ah. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Strong. Adjective. Adjective. Adjective…
If TNM had a rupee for every post we see Celebrating WomenTM on the eighth of March every year, our yearly budget would be sorted, with enough left over to do more ground reporting.
That said, we are grateful for all the support you have provided us to help us produce the work we do. If you are not already a TNM Member, we urge you to consider signing up today. Share our work with friends and family – we need all the support we can get.
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International Women’s Day was not always this pink and ‘girlboss’-ey. It originated from the labour movements and feminist movements of the world, and March 8 has been recognised as International Women’s Day by the United Nations since 1977. The day recognises the struggles of women in every sphere of life — whether it’s the right to vote, work with dignity, or live a life without violence. That it has been reduced to a marketing calendar item for fairness creams and hair removal products, and celebrating benign patriarchy, is upsetting.
At The News Minute, we believe it’s important that March 8 is observed as a day to strengthen the rights of women — but the work that goes into ensuring that our journalism is feminist and looking at all issues through a gender lens happens year long. As a newsroom led by women, we don’t wait for specific events to ‘pinkify’ our coverage. We don’t look for specific ‘women centric’ stories. Every single piece of work we do, and every person who is part of our team, has a progressive approach towards gender as a marginalisation in our society — and the view that it intersects in various ways with other marginalisations that people face.
It means we cover the battle against the hijab as one targeting Muslim girls and women who are being forced to either part with markers of their identity as Muslims or give up on their education. We foreground women’s voices in people’s movements, recognise that women leaders are everywhere, and it’s a choice that journalists make to see them or not. We try hard to ensure that the experts we reach out to are not just cis het upper caste men — we collaborate with other organisations and institutions to identify a diversity of voices. We educate ourselves every day by listening to women with lived experiences different from our own.
We are proud to be a feminist newsroom — and not a newsroom that tokenises feminism.
Here’s some of our work from recent months that we are proud of:
When protests over young women wearing hijab in classrooms broke out all across Karnataka, we reported from the protest site, but also went beyond. While our ground reports narrated how the protests were started and organised, our sharp opinion pieces highlighted the legal contradictions. We also looked at the aftermath of the court verdict.
When it comes to law and the judiciary as well, we have stood up for justice and critiqued institutionalised power, as can been seen from our coverage of the Franco Mulakkal sexual assault judgement.
We also extensively wrote on dowry harassment, cutting across intersections, contextualising the history and implications of the practice.
We have also been at the forefront of #MeToo reporting. For us, the stories were not just news pieces. We went beyond the news cycle to amplify narratives, debunk toxicity, and build survivor solidarity.
We have been actively generating conversations on popular culture and patriarchy, unpacking concepts like stalking, harassment, and calling out their glorification on screen.
If this is the kind of journalism you would like to see more of, support TNM by becoming a Member. Less pink, more feminism.
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