MxMIndia

Tag: women’s day

  • Being aware of bias in one's choice of words is among the first steps in an egalitarian world

    Speaking of Which | Gender Defender

    By Vidya Heble

     

    The number of people who write or edit for a living and have not used the term “fair sex” is likely to be rather small. I’m pretty sure I’ve done it myself in my unenlightened days, though I can’t recall any precise instance. It’s one of those phrases which rolls lightly off the tips of our fingers and takes its place amidst the crowds of jostling words that vie for public attention every day. And we think no more of them, once written and saved.

     

    But it is important to pay attention to these and other phrases, which typify a kind of thinking that should have been swept out of the door long ago. Why call women the “fair sex”? Why look for some cutesy set of words to describe, plain and simple, women? Because we are uncomfortable using that word, and I kid you not. We’d rather say “ladies” or “sisters” or, yuckily, “females”. (You did know, didn’t you, that women “perspire” whereas ladies “glow”?)

     

    Secondly, why are we even implying that women are fair and men are not? It’s an ancient, faux-servile-complimentary mode of referring to the supposedly dainty breed called “ladies”, which really has no place in the world of women who drive trains, build skyscrapers and deliver their children in the fields in the middle of a day’s work. Instead of pretending, why don’t we just do it, and actually respect and protect women? The most infuriating thing is to hear drivel such as “fair sex” on the one hand and on the other, read about members of this dainty brigade gagged, bound, brutalized, killed or left to die on the street.

     

    Moreover, it is but a step from saying “fair sex” to saying “weaker sex” when you are next groping for a pretty phrase and don’t want to repeat yourself. This one only perpetuates the stereotype that women are less capable. Yes, they are for the most part physically less strong than men, but as countless men will tell you, they are made of steel otherwise! There is nothing weak about the women who make the wheels of the world go round, be it a CEO or your domestic helper.

     

  • While one is all for feminism, I am allergic to militant feminists, the sort who are convinced that every single male walking the earth is a bloody misogynist, and the creep deserves to be immediately annihilated. Obviously this kind of thinking is counterproductive

    Anil Thakraney: Be a cool feminist

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    While one is all for feminism, I am allergic to militant feminists, the sort who are convinced that every single male walking the earth is a bloody misogynist, and the creep deserves to be immediately annihilated. Obviously this kind of thinking is counterproductive. And what worries me is this, and I state this from firsthand experience, having spent a number of years in the world of media and advertising: More and more young women seem to be growing into the militant mould in the world of communication.

     

    How did this come to happen? Well, if the mother hen, so to speak, is virulently anti-male, the chicks, so to speak, who work under her, are sure to emulate the example. And this leads to the mushrooming of hard-edged feminists in media companies and advertising agencies. Let me tell you this very candidly: There’s nothing more off-putting and repulsive than a woman who’s convinced of male inferiority, and whose mission in life is to go one up on us men.

     

    On this Women’s Day, here’s a thought for my fairer friends: The reason women make for better team leaders is because of the feminine values they bring to the table, apart from the obvious gender-neutral leadership skills. She can be tough and compassionate at the same time. She can be extremely focused yet sensitive to her people’s needs. She brings in a great deal of commitment to the job, and yet gives poor performers in her team a long rope. This makes for a deadly combination of professionalism and humanity, and this is why I strongly believe the CEO ratio, which is currently skewed in the favour of men, will swing the other way in the coming decades. Yes, women make for better leaders, that I am entirely sure about.

     

    However, the militant sort fritter away their natural advantages by trying to constantly score over men, by being intolerant of any criticism of feminism, and by being dogmatic in their set beliefs. And ironically, when they do this, they make the same mistakes we men have been making for centuries. In fact, they become exactly like us men!

     

    As the Indian corporate world stands on the cusp of change, I urge my beautiful colleagues to be proud feminists. But to not lose their innate feminism in the process. That would go directly against what they are trying to achieve. Be strong. Be sexy. Be cool. Be kind. And we cave men will love and respect you even more.

     

    Happy Women’s Day!

     

     

  • Salwar suit = behenji. Short skirt = hot young thing. Apurva Purohit is dismayed that when representing women, Indian advertising is still stuck in the dark ages

    By Invitation | Apurva Purohit: Seeta and Geeta

    By Apurva Purohit

     

    Yesterday I saw a commercial for a car which bothered me a bit. It was not a great piece of communication, either in strategic intent or in execution. But that was not the reason for my dismay. It was the stereotyping that goes on in Indian advertising even to this day that alarmed me.

     

    The story line, if it indeed can be called that, went something like this – A cool dude is shown driving the car in question. He sees a girl waiting by the kerb for a lift and veers to offer her one. She comes forward when suddenly he swerves away, and takes a violent u-turn. Why? Because he has just spotted a girl on the other side whom, we presume, he is more attracted to, and turns to offer her a lift instead.

     

    To showcase that the second girl is more attractive than the first, she is shown wearing a short dress versus the salwar suit the first girl is dressed in, and has smartly bobbed hair versus long hair and so on.

     

    This typifying continues to be prevalent in ad commercials, ad nauseam. So if you wear a sari you are an aunty or a mummy, if you wear a salwar suit, you are a behenji, and if you wear a dress, you are hot and happening and thus attractive to men.

     

    It reminds me of one of our management trainees who came back from doing a survey in a small town, and was very shocked at seeing women in saris driving two-wheelers there! To this day I haven’t been able to figure out what shocked him more; that women were driving two-wheelers or that women wearing saris were driving two-wheelers. And in case it was the later, what then should be the ideal dress code for women if they do want to drive?

     

    Thankfully, unlike advertising commercials, real life is neither linear nor typical. It has interesting people like Usha Uthup. If she had been living in the imaginations of our advertising buddies, she would have been wearing short black dresses, to go with the western songs she sings, you see. But look at her – Kanjeevarams, gajras and Adidas keds redecorated to match her saris. Wow!

     

    Although in the confines of our creative friends’ minds, I am sure she only materializes to sing classical bhajans!

     

    Apurva Purohit is CEO, Radio City. This was first published in her blog, Women at Work (http://www.womenatwork.co.in). Ms Purohit views and essays on women striking the balance between work and home is being published in a still-untitled book in the next quarter by Rupa Publications.