[Reader-list] Yesterdays news

[sukanya ghosh]

Women's groups yesterday circulated this letter in response to the front 
page graphic of buddhadeb bhattacharya and his ministers. The telegraph 
has responded with a hint of an apology today . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Editor

The Telegraph

Kolkata

Sir,

It is outrageous that The Telegraph, Kolkata's leading English 
newspaper, should in the twenty-first century (July 18, 2009), decide to 
equate inaction with femininity and women. In depicting in its front 
page image this morning the Chief Minister of West Bengal and his 
leading administrators, all men, wearing saris, the Telegraph has 
betrayed its deeply entrenched patriarchal prejudices about women. We 
would ask whether the equating of men with women is a compliment or an 
insult. Clearly your paper thinks that it is an insult to men. 

Like many of us in West Bengal, The Telegraph too is dismayed by 
administrative apathy and inaction. However, reinforcing archaic gender 
stereotypes in an attempt to discharge the watchdog duties of the Press 
cannot be called responsible cutting-edge journalism.

To add insult to injury, your newspaper has appended an apology to women 
who might feel that the elegance of the sari is wasted on these 
administrators. To reduce the question of women's courage and efficiency 
to a question of feminine elegance further betrays your newspaper's 
retrograde gender politics. We are also deeply puzzled by the willful 
offence it offers to half the reading, buying and working public. 

We take strong objection to the demeaning representation of women, and 
demand a front page apology from the Telegraph.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The article:   http://www.telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html

The response: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090719/jsp/frontpage/story_11255765.jsp