It amazes me how much people confuse one thing for another. And by amaze, I mean annoy. Coke with Pepsi, success with men, no with a yes, and now powerful and independent women with wearing western clothing. One is almost instantly associated with the other, without a thought that they could be exclusive.
In Mumbai recently, the Western Railways, in an attempt to modernise their old logos and perhaps empower women, replaced the logo of a woman in a ghoongat. This is the logo used to denote the woman’s compartment. The logo will now feature a woman in a power suit. They are looking at putting up pictures of strong and successful women like Kalpana Chawla, Mithali Raj and others to motivate and further inspire women. The idea they said is to “adopt an icon that will do justice and represent today’s women in this city, who are independent and successful.”
To keep up with the changing times, WR is modernising the logo used to mark women’s coaches. Apart from the change in the logo, posters of inspiring women with details of their achievements, will also be displayed in the ladies coaches. @drmbcthttps://t.co/9c7dqKsd4Y
— Western Railway (@WesternRly) May 27, 2019
While we admire their intent- the logo could use a refresh- we aren’t entirely on board with the woman being in a power suit. Because right now more than inspiring it seems a little bit like a case of misplaced feminism. To take down the ghungat woman and replace it with one in a corporate suit implies that a woman is ‘modern’ and forward thinking only if she dons western clothing. It is the same as using a girl dressed in a mini skirt to imply promiscuity. It’s too literal and therefore, is a sort of face plant.
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Women don’t have to shed their pallus or give up their bindis to be able to be strong leaders or be in positions of power. Nor do they have to put on a blazer on their back to make a dent in the world. And mere tokenism or not, maybe they could have thought of a better way to depict change than by diminishing the worth of women on the basis of how they dress. We wear our gender as proudly as we do our sarees and bindis, and if there is a need to spread any message, it is this one.
Dear @WesternRly how comfortably we #women travel is more important than how we dress. How about increasing the number of women’s coaches instead of changing a damn logo? https://t.co/yZoyWEagUt
— Deborah Grey a.k.a Evil Blonde (@GreyFrost) May 27, 2019
Good thought about the change but I would love to see instead a group of women of different attires as the logo because travelling in train is teamwork and our crowds are a mix anyway of ethnic wear and office wear so a better solution might be a team of women ❤
— Reema K Thunderbolt (@JaMLaRHaT) May 27, 2019
Modernizing!🧐 You call changing logos from Indian to Western Style “modernization”👌🏽 what else could be more shameful than this? You’re giving your passengers a legacy of calling their own culture backward or being ashamed of. @Gmwrly @drmbct @drmadiwr @wrdrmrjt @RatlamDRM
— Manpreet 🇨🇦 (@JakhuMonty) May 27, 2019
The fact that this hard-to-miss detail did not catch the attention of the ones initiating this change makes us think that the tweets are a reflection of the truth.
The NEED of the hour is to be more attuned, to really listen and we are failing.