Mid-Day's exploitative story

hi all,

Just saw a post (http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=49641698651&topic=7986) on Facebook's `Consortium of pub-going, loose and forward Women'. I am quoting it verbatim...

"Those who have read the front page story in Mid Day today were shocked. It showed a semi-nude girl, with the headline `Another sex clip rocks campus'. http://www.mid-day.com/delhi/index.htm. The article (http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/feb/180209-Noida-MBA-student-leaks-girlfriends-striptease-video.htm) goes on to explain how this girl's boyfriend filmed her striptease and circulated it on the mobile through MMS. What is shocking is how Midday, instead of showing the culprit's face, has shown the victim in only her undergarments. Her face may be pixilated, but it's still disgusting to show a girl's picture, in such a vulnerable state by such a supposedly reputed paper. Midday has done to the girl, what her boyfriend did to her -- it's an outrage of her modesty and sexual exploitation. Recently, Midday did something similar. A week ago, it carried the headline which was completely sensationalised (in red ink too) that a minor child had been raped. They DARED to show the picture of the child and her distraught mother on the front page, instead of the culprit's face who was in police custody. As if those disrespectful mid-day mates were not enough, the paper is set to exploit rape victims as well. I don't know about you, but i am banning that crazy paper from my home and office.

Do write in to mid-day@mailbag.com and cc to editor shishir.joshi@mid-day.com to express what you think of such activities on this paper's part. I agree most tabloids are the same, but at least they don't show the victim's exploitation on the front page (they don't spare even a raped child)!! mid-day has crossed that line even; it is unbelievable. They're getting a long letter from me; let's see if they have the guts to print it. And in keeping with this group's Gandhigiri attitude of non-violent yet powerful protests, let's collectively ban this exploitative paper. What say?"

Awaiting your comments on this, people.

Pink Chaddi Campaign and more ...

For those of you who keep a tab on this blog, my gratitude firstly ... secondly, I am sure you would've noticed that a post has gone missing. After much contemplation, we decided to delete the post that was written by our respected contributor, Nina, expressing her support for the Pink Chaddi Campaign which everyone in the blog world is aware of by now. As noble as Nina's intentions were, we realize that this blog is not the place to be discussing merits or demerits of the above quoted campaign.

I, for one, do not support the campaign and have written about it on my personal blog here and here. However, I see no reason for that to be discussed on Unchaahi. Anything that has been written on Unchaahi so far under the 'solutions' category has followed a decorum of rational analysis and discussion without getting swayed by popular propaganda or emotional reactions. We, the Unchaahi team, understand that and hope to continue the same decorum in our future dialogue.

My apologies for the miscommunication.

- Roop

Motherland

Hi All :-)

Nina here- I'm a PhD student who is looking at the practice of female foeticide in India and the broader social context in which it takes place. 

My husband and I travelled from Australia to Mumbai last Sunday to visit his family (he is Indian- I am not), and for me to make some research contacts for my studies. It is my fifth visit to wonderful India and I must say it has been an interesting stay thus far.

Although I am accustomed to being stared at in India (for my white skin?) this time it has been different- I have been touched by strangers (men) a number of times, and not older men. These have been men (boys) in their early 20s. Most surprising to me is that I'm no spring chicken- I'm 32 years old, have wrinkles like most whities at my age, and do not have the figure of Pamela Anderson (thank god). 

What is it then? What  has happened in the last 24 months to make these young men think it is acceptable to brush up against and grope a woman (who is accompanied by her husband at the time)?

Now this is not a rant against men- in fact, I really do feel sorry for men who are so imprisoned in their gender that they are unable to see the worth and opportunity for learning and companionship that exists in the fairer sex. By treating women this way men are further oppressing themselves too. Is treating women in this kind of way the only way for some to feel like a 'man'?

I have been traversing these lines of thought recently and am really looking forward to meeting up with a mens organisation in Mumbai, MAVAW, whose activities are based around empowering men in order to prevent violence against women.

Which I think raises an important point- in order to change the deeply ingrained son preference culture which underpins the skewed sex ratio and practices of female foeticide surely men must be further incorporated into the solution. For 12 months I have been studying policies aimed at redressing the ratio and 99.9% of programmes/policies are aimed at women only. 

Perhaps the policies have been woefully ineffective thus far because of the simple fact that women do not exist in some sort of social vacuum i.e. gender roles only have significance because of their counterpoints (behavioural norms for men vs women). 

I am interested to see what you all think...

Should policies incorporate men's empowerment too?

Would this help women shake off the patriarchal shackles and value their daughters if they had support of the more powerful sex?

When talking to my husbands (male) friends about the tendency for men to objectify and oppress women I'm told, 'This is India- it's the way it is'.

There's a line in Slumdog Millionaire which I keep thinking about in relation to all this...

'Just because that's the way things are, doesn't mean that's the way things should be'

Nina :-)

PS Welcome back Roop!

Revival ...

Hey guys

This is Roop. I apologize for not being a regular on this blog for the longest time now. I had doctor's orders to stay away from anything that would upset me per se for a while. Well, obviously, that didn't quite happen. I stayed away from Unchaahi but inadvertently got sucked into talking about women issues on my personal blog. Since I haven't been contributing to this blog for a while now, I figured that I might begin to do that by cross posting some of the posts from over at my other blog. Also, I want to thank SC, Reeti, SpeakingSilence and Nina for keeping this boat floating!!! Much power to you, guys.

Here are the links:

1. Writing for Freedom
2. It's not an everyday occurence
3. Disgusting double standards
4. Practically Speaking (solutions)