Tamil magazine Kumudam Reporter shames women for wearing leggings

Does the sight of a woman in leggings offend you? It certainly seems to have troubled the editorial staff of Tamil Nadu-based magazine Kumudam Reporter, for their latest cover story is on women wearing leggings.

Kumudam has packaged their story in a way that will not fail to grab eyeballs, without giving two hoots to basic ethics of journalism. Their cover image is a collage of pictures of the backs of three women wearing leggings. All three images were taken at unfortunate angles and it is quite obvious that in all probability, these women were unaware that these pictures were taken. So much for the right to privacy.

The magazine is very popular and is known for its tabloid form of journalism. The headline of this story reads "Are leggings obscene? Young women cross the line." Smart trick, right? Take the moral high ground and preach about modesty while using pictures of women caught unawares. Their article suggests that men stare and ogle at women because wearing leggings makes them look obscene.

Social media users outraged over this 'cover story' and took to Twitter to lament about the sad state of journalism in Tamil Nadu:

oh no somebody is wearing leggings. kumudam reporter pls. take note. advice him about obscenity. #doublestandards #misogyny

— Meena Kandasamy (@meenakandasamy) September 23, 2015

Following outrage over its cover story, #Kumudam takes moral high ground says this is to show readers what men think of women @NewsX

— Lokpria (@Lokpria) September 23, 2015

Tamil mag Kumudam stalks women, shames them w/ cover photo of women in leggings http://t.co/ImibZzBPCB by @anisha_w via @thenewsminute

— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) September 23, 2015

Way to go 'Kumudam!' A pair of leggings is all that's wrong with society today! Terrific investigative piece:- https://t.co/nTAN8dtmWG

— Prathibha P (@ursprattlingly) September 23, 2015

What went viral is the pix of women's butts taken by Kumudam investigator. Inside pages were worse http://t.co/oLd3mRfpKn

— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) September 23, 2015

A journalist from Chennai is petitioning Chairman and MD P Vardharajan of Kumudam Reporter to apologise for their story. You can find the petition here.