Sunday: At one of the three big malls in this utterly butterly conservative city of Chennai, we - D and me, were surprised to find something finally `happening' in the middle of world cup chaos. Some Women's Day special. Whew!
Hope it includes all of us women, and offers something tolerable. My half hope was short lived. Welcome Women's Day! A fashion show for the `cause' of women's day! And eager men lining up along the runway meant for dry runs, that too for an event due only after two days! Sigh!
At another store upstairs, another women's day offer - `buy stuff worth Rs 2,000' and avail discounts! What a slap! Look at the several disappointing stereotypes this one besides the fashion show charade throws up! It assumes that women, who have always been consumers of the brand, suddenly need a misleading banner to walk in. If the mall's idea of a day of this sort was to sashay skinny girls (read models) instead of reaching out to the real women of different sizes who visit it, and end up giving it its moolah, the stores were no less, trying colour the woman thing pink - a la valentines day.
My morning newspaper had a supplement - with its page one filled in half by a saree store ad. Oh Yeah, its Women's Day. So forget the pain that we have to live through, all days of the year, the newspaper assumes our interests lie in buying sarees in the name of a day like this, not discuss the happenings around us.
How to insult a woman on her `day'? Yahoo had this amazing 10 things lister about what? Things men `don't' like in women. My guess is, some thankless son of a helpless mother who toiled away for his food wrote it with sheer vengeance, and Yahoo plastered it all over the Net. What a pity! Men love to throw their insecurities in with such shamelessness!
It's 10 minutes to 12 am. Besides wishing my woman pals and feeling generally happy, nothing dramatic happened (TV too was so down with tokenism of the day). Yawn! The day flit by. The most desperate revellers were of course sellers of women's goods, hoping more of their wares got sold.
Hope it includes all of us women, and offers something tolerable. My half hope was short lived. Welcome Women's Day! A fashion show for the `cause' of women's day! And eager men lining up along the runway meant for dry runs, that too for an event due only after two days! Sigh!
At another store upstairs, another women's day offer - `buy stuff worth Rs 2,000' and avail discounts! What a slap! Look at the several disappointing stereotypes this one besides the fashion show charade throws up! It assumes that women, who have always been consumers of the brand, suddenly need a misleading banner to walk in. If the mall's idea of a day of this sort was to sashay skinny girls (read models) instead of reaching out to the real women of different sizes who visit it, and end up giving it its moolah, the stores were no less, trying colour the woman thing pink - a la valentines day.
My morning newspaper had a supplement - with its page one filled in half by a saree store ad. Oh Yeah, its Women's Day. So forget the pain that we have to live through, all days of the year, the newspaper assumes our interests lie in buying sarees in the name of a day like this, not discuss the happenings around us.
How to insult a woman on her `day'? Yahoo had this amazing 10 things lister about what? Things men `don't' like in women. My guess is, some thankless son of a helpless mother who toiled away for his food wrote it with sheer vengeance, and Yahoo plastered it all over the Net. What a pity! Men love to throw their insecurities in with such shamelessness!
It's 10 minutes to 12 am. Besides wishing my woman pals and feeling generally happy, nothing dramatic happened (TV too was so down with tokenism of the day). Yawn! The day flit by. The most desperate revellers were of course sellers of women's goods, hoping more of their wares got sold.
