And they do the glossy feminism again….

Those in India may have seen this Femina magazine with the beautiful Indian actress Huma Qureshi on the cover making a feminist statement. Now how many times have we said that the media needs to stop the stereotypical portrayal of beauty…we should cheer for this cover then, shouldn't we?

I would've applauded this effort if it wasn't for the hint of hypocrisy and lack of credibility i felt. Maybe it's the fact that a glossy mag is choosing to take a stand against the glossiness and superficiality of the perception of beauty today. They've air-brushed Huma's already heavily makeup-laden face and arms and then tagged it as 'I don't owe you perfection'. If only they had photographed her in natural light, in a natural setting or even her natural body/ face, this would've been more credible.

I thought of this old post (way back from 2007) about how loosely feminist tag lines are thrown around for commercial reasons these days, but are they really a step forward for us?