THE MAKING OF THE ‘FEMININE’: LOOKING AT POPULAR MAGAZINES

INSIDE OUT

Dr. Babitha Justin

Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

Do women’s magazines and their consumption have a close nexus with their living reality or are
‘realties’ constructed through print cultures? To fathom this paradox of the print culture in the
Kerala context, I would like to take a look at two popular magazines in Kerala. My paper deals
with the Malayala Manorama Weekly and Vanita, which according to the latest ABC (Audit
Bureau of Circulation) statistics, indicate the staggering indices of the largest circulated weekly
and second largest selling women’s magazine in India. Malayala Manorama Weekly is the
largest selling weekly in India with 7.3 lakhs copies circulated every week and Vanitha,
bimonthly is India's largest selling women's magazine with 4.7 lakh copies. This paper is about
two magazines on women, at a time when women increasingly participate as contributors,
reading subjects and as represented objects in print culture.

This is a working paper and any creative suggestions at the end of this are welcome. My paper
draws heavily on the source magazines, internet sources homepages, Wikipedia and personal
blogs, a couple of researches made on print media in Kerala, some interesting documents and
Ph D dissertations on the impact of print culture in Kerala and also on interviews and
discussions with my own peer group in Hyderabad Central University and in Trivandrum.

To begin with, it is necessary to take a look at the history print and the emergence of magazines
in print culture in the context of Kerala. The story of printed letters in Kerala began with some
early Portuguese ventures in the Kerala Coast in 1500s. But full-fledged printing as an enterprise
began with Charles Mead, “a printer turned missionary, who established the first printing press
in 1820 under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. He was soon followed by
Benjamin Bailey; founder of the Missionary society in Kerala was the founder of the Church
Missionary Society Press in Kottayam in 1821. 1

1
B. S Kesavan, History of Printing and Publishing in India, vol. 2, Origins of Printing and
Publishing in Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala (New Delhi, National Book trust, 1988). Pp. 597,
615.
Robin Jeffrey, an eminent critic who has works immensely on Kerala, says that a polemic
entrepreneurial shift in growing of valuable cash crops in Travancore, brought in a “modern
colonial bureaucracy” that led the way to many social and institutional changes that occurred in
Kerala. He says that, along with the establishment of printing presses in Kerala, there was a
widespread literary movement, fostered by the state, which also established a non-missionary
printing presses in 1853, “which emphasized on local-level primary education”. This
movement is an interesting phenomenon in the sense it negotiated the quodlibet of coalescing
two parallel yet opposing streams, of Christian religious as well as State-sponsored printing
enterprise in Kerala.2

According to Jeffrey, the print history in Kerala underwent three major phases. The first phase
was that of printing as a rare stage, which began in 1820 and lasted till 1880s. This was the time
when printing existed as a rare enterprise, which catered only to excusive needs as in the case of
publishing for religious purposes, printing text books for state use and other documents for
exclusive use. The second phase, which is the Elite phase, started Kerala in 1880sc and lasted for
a fairly long time for a century, till the 1970s. Printing at the time of the elite phase was also
scarce, mysterious as well as relatively expensive. Print in Elite phase also moulded the
environment for Kerala’s socio political scenario. Though the circulation of print was relatively
small, it has in fact influenced and revolutionaised the socio-political ambience of Kerala for a
relatively long period of time. The third phase of mass medium emerged with the force of mass-
market capitalism which entered Kerala towards the end of 1960s. Circulation of printed matter
boomed by 18 per cent. This is that seminal departure where media became vehicles to
entertainment rather than polemic education.

Though there were a few newspapers of note those days, it was Shri Kandathil Varghese Mappila
who revolutionized print with a long standing newspaper which is available to date. Jeffrey, in
his article on calls this phase in the annals of print history in Kerala, as the stage of print as an

2
Robin Jeffrey, The Three Stages of Print: Testing Ideas of “Public Sphere”, “Print Capitalism”
and “Public Action” in Kerala, India. (A paper presented to the 15th Biennial Conference of
the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Canberra 29th June- 2 July 2004).
elite medium. Here, the crux of the paper here is that fact I shall be looking at two popular
magazines of the Malayala Manorama group of Publications.

Malayala Manorama Weekly was established in 1937 to cater to men and women alike in
Kerala. But unfortunately, after a year of its publication, the Travancore Govt closed down
Malayala Manorama for inciting sedition, and also inciting them “to disobedience of the law”3
After the state prohibition the newspaper started its re print only in 1947, and the weekly has to
wait for another decade for its reprint and circulation. On 18 th February 1956, Malayala
Manorama Weekly started reprinting and after that it didn’t have to turn back in its popularity
and circulation.

Whereas Vanita, as we all know, is not the first women’s magazine in Malayalam. It began its
publication as an exclusive magazine for women in March 1975. The first women’s magazine in
Kerala was Kerala Sugunabodhini that came out in 1886. After that in 40 years as the elite
phase in print persisted, there were at least eight magazines of notable mention. 4

When I went through the articles, interviews and advertisements in articles in Vanita in 2008
and 1976 issues of a whole year, I could see certain patterns in thirty two years of its publication.
I began with the Cover pages of Vanita over three decades as well as the recent issues of
Malayala Manorama Weekly. The cover pages in themselves were tell tale of the obvious class
differences that the magazines were catering which in fact delineated the differences which
bordered on the subtle distinction of the ‘popular’ from ‘popular elite’.

In Manorama weekly, women in traditional roles, exuding “Malayalithwam” , are chosen as

cover models. Till recently we could even see girls who generally dress up in dawani and saree

3
M. J. Koshy (ed.), K C Mammen Mappilai : The Man and his Vision (Trivandrum: Kerala
Historical Society, 1976)p. 632.
4
They were 1. Kerala Subhodhini, 2. Sarada, 3. Lakshmibai, 4. Bhasa Sarada, 5. Mahila
Ratnam, 6. Sumangala, 7. Mahila and 8. Vanitakusumam.

Cited by Sabitha T P in http://osdir.com/ml/culture.india.sarai.reader/2005-01/msg00156.html

with a basil leaf on their hair, feature as hot favorites in the cover model arena. The same way
the two piece traditional saree clad model could also be seen as a recurring figure. In the cover,
occasionally we can see male models and they would be rare exceptions, like our superstars, or
someone very popular among the masses. Otherwise, we can see Malayalee models, who uphold
the Malayalee woman image.

In Vanita, the ethos of a metropolitan womanhood is fore-grounded. We have models,

Malayalee and non Malayalee, wearing Western clothes, home makers of importance, successful
professionals, sports women, and successful, ‘feel good’, ‘happy looking’ families also feature in
the cover picture. In deep contrast to each other, these magazines project different models, in
order to cater to the interest of different classes\castes in Kerala. This may sound rather a
simplistic deduction of the general phenomenon, but the recurring patterns of choosing and
projecting cover models are indicative of the indices of “femininity” handed down in a platter to
women\men consumers of the print.The class/caste implications of the images are also well
defined here in the models of desirability projected on cover pictures.

It is at this juncture; TP Sabitha’s path-breaking study on the construction of ‘femininity’ in

Kerala in early women’s magazines becomes relevant.5 In her study, she finds three discursive
broad categories in early women’s magazines which were “related to the project of educating
women to become ideals of urbane femininity. These are: sexuality, health and hygiene and
physical appearance”. 6
In all these debates, a woman is posited in the realm of the corporeal.
Her mental faculties are channelized to groom her physicality. These parameters which
bestowed education and enlightenment to women also set aside projected certain models of
functionality for women’s bodies which were restricted well within their domestic boundaries
and gendered roles.

Ratheesh Radhakrishnan takes this argument one step further by exploring constructed
“masculinities” in Kerala by stating that the “women’s question’ of the late twentieth century,
was floated and debated extensively by early Malayalam magazines in Kerala. He says, “In the

5
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2005-January/004862.html. T.P Sabitha. Early
Women’s magazines in Kerala. .
6
TP Sabitha, P 1
process of negotiating the “women’s question”, these movements and public debates that
emerged in those times in the many journals that were in circulation reorganized notions of
gender in such a way that it discursively produced notions of ‘sexual difference’ for years to
come. Women’s journals that were circulated in early twentieth century Kerala, addressed
women , who had not, in their vision , integrated themselves into the newly constituted modern
forms of life, and attempted to indulge in a pedagogic discourse vis-a-vis ‘ideal forms of
femininity’’ . He adds that within this logic, women “were seen as embodying inherent qualities
like nurturing, patience and kindness. They are qualified to look after home and also take on
vocations like teaching and nursing which were seen as an extension of their domestic duties”7

With this information in the background, if we look at the 1976 edition of Vanitha we can see
concurring patterns in these books which take on this sequence

1. Discussion of marital problems

2. Autobiographies of wives of eminent personalities and women professionals like writers,
doctors, etc
3. Tackling sexual frigidity , related diseases and sexual tips to satisfy a man
4. Cooking, art and craft
5. Shopping and frugality in shopping (never spend husband’s money too much)
6. Mothering and housekeeping
7. Cosmetics and yogic work out series to remain a slim beauty
8. Rasa bindukkal (which usually harp quite a lot on sexist jokes)
9. Comic strip to wind it up

Here, the woman’s domesticity and physicality are stressed with a slight variation by
applauding and projecting the achievements of professional women, who invariably do the
balancing act of carrying out professional as well as domestic duties with the ‘dutiful’ pace,
gusto, efficiency and enthusiasm. While according women their most “rightful” space of the
domestic privates, the Magazine in ate 70s goes one step forward to include women
professionals into its domain. As and when they do it, the domesticity and the familial duties of

7
Ratheesh Radhakrishnan. Masculinity and the Structuring of the Public Domain in Kerala: A
History of the Contemporary. Unpublished dissertation submitted to The Manipal Academy of
Higher Education, July 2006. Pp 12-13.
the professional women, and the right balance she keeps in upholding them, are also
emphasized and deliberated in so many words.

In the same magazine, after thirty odd years, (the tumble of thirty odd years is important here,
because 70s, according to Jeffrey’s mark the beginning of the ‘mass medium’ phase in Kerala,
which continues to persist even in the present era), these concerns are again aired again, with a
very subtle difference. It is here that we have to take into account the historical changes that
‘woman’ as a category has undergone in three decades. It is poignant to take up Radhakrishnan’s
argument where he says, “The status of ‘women’ as a positive index of development in statistics
remained unchallenged till the late 1980s when various women’s groups and feminist groups
questioned its salience. It was also around the same time that women became a category of
political organization in Kerala. A number of organizations began to use the language of gender.
In this context a clear-cut hierarchy between women and men-both identified as ontologically
coherent singular entities-was also being imagined. Such a position created a victim predator
relationship-one that was seen as ahistorical, unchanging and universal. This move could be
understood as an attempt to politicize the binary of man and woman that had been put in place
in the early twentieth century by arguing that there are power relations inherent to the notions
of gender difference accepted for about a century.” 8

In contemporary publications, we can also see the way in which the present day concerns of
education and profession are taken care of well. The indices of women achievers and their
inclusion in the project of women’s magazines are also high compared to the late seventies. But
surprisingly, the same concerns of health, hygiene, manners recur with more sophisticated
researches put into it.

In this context, I would like to bring attention to one of the articles which brought considerable
debate in the cyber space. In Vanita’s April 2008 issue, an article about the ensnaring
propensities of technology was highlighted by the article titled “Mobile Phones and the Blue
Truth” which narrated case studies of various women who were exploited and trapped by the
misuse of technology. Read out excerpts.

8
Ratheesh Radhakrishnan. P. 18.
Another story goes thus:

The moral of the story of the ensnaring web of technology is encapsulated thus towards the end:
Though this particular article elicited a lot of outbursts from the tech-savvy young generation in
Kerala, it is enough to say that these protests were confined to the virtual world.9

Another story that has been of relevance is an appalling account the story of missing women in
Kerala. The article “Where have 9404 women and children disappeared?” was the cover story of
September 15-30 2008 issue and it discussed the alarming rate in which women and children
disappear from Kerala, and some return after being exploited sexually, while some end up in
brothels and some even end up as unidentified corpses. The root cause of this disappearance,
the magazine points out, is elopement which is triggered by mobile phones and other gadgets of
modern technology.

Another, interesting story that featured in one of the issues is about Ms. Reba Daniel, who gave
birth to a child without the medical assistance. Vanitha hailed this as the different choices a
woman had in an alternative to medical assistance in child birth, and how natural ways of child
birth are healthier and more beneficial to the emotional bondage that the mother and baby
shared.

These stories cannot be treated as isolated instances, because clearly there is a message that is
disseminated in the moral rubric of these ‘real’ tales and case studies, that is technology can be
really detrimental and harmful to women and children if not used in a proper fashion. The
rhetoric of this sparing, vigilant and cautious use of technology can be deduced as:

1. Technology is friendly and savvy yet sophisticated and can be frankensteinian

2. Sophisticated technology needs careful and cautious handling
3. Women can especially be exploited if unaware of the technological dangers prying in the
dark
4. Exploitation can be detrimental physically, sexually and emotionally
5. As women are almost always the victims of the ‘male’s’ smart use of technology, they
should be vigilant and sparing in its use and never get ensnared by its nefarious web
which can even lead them to prostitution or even death as an unidentified body in a
mortuary.

9
See http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/04/25/vanitha-internet-and-the-mobile-phone/ for
further debates on the issue
May be this moral fabric of the whole story can actually put women and parents on guard, which
is good enough, but what is uneasy about these articles is that there is little or no study on the
factors of disappearance, except than in the blame game of ‘brainless’, ‘naïve’ women who
use/misuse technology. The sociological, psychological and other significant factors which
contribute to this alarming factor are not at all looked into at all. Another aspect is that women
and children are considered as contiguous, mutually exclusive categories and not separate
entities. Another very important message spun into the narrative is the playing up of the ‘victim-
predator’ aspect thus building up the binaries of the notions of female/male. Complementary to
this, the resistance to situate women as consumers at ease with technology is also implicated
here. This disturbingly locates technology as a cerebral commodity, very male in its production,
consumption and implications, which does not become handy to ‘women’ who are located in the
realm of the ‘corporeal’. The disturbing and uneasy trajectory of the binaries of male/female,
predator/victim and cerebral/corporeal, etc are insidiously couched within these stories.

Malayala Manorama Weekly, one of the most popular weeklies in India fortunately or
unfortunately has the title of being a ‘Ma’ weekly. Ma publications, as you know, are a series of
publications that are supposed to ‘harp on the emotional sentiments of people with its novellas,
serialized novels, and other articles which touch upon the gory, sentimental and impulsive
aspects of human behavior’. This particular aspect of dealing with the raw emotions makes it
popular and marketable to a lower middle class and middle class populace of Kerala. It is
especially aimed at the house wives, college students, etc especially from sub-urban to rural back
grounds. It is this factor which has actually invited the ire of many intellectual organizations in
Kerala. The derision and contempt which were peripheral and unspoken, took a decisive turn in
the years from 1987-90s, when young DYFI activists started a campaign against Ma publications
in all university campuses in Kerala. Their way of protest was in making bonfires of these
weeklies, Malayala Manorama included, which according to them incited young and immature
minds to unnecessary sentimentalities which triggered high suicide rates among women and
youngsters. The main problem here was the fact, intellectual organizations found the content
too physically and emotionally titillating rather than intellectual.

There aren’t many a literature about this onslaught and antagonism, but I found a very
interesting piece of writing during this time by Anil Kumar A V called “ The Saffron Colored
Plague” (Kaavi Niramulla Plague). In this book, Anil Kumar tells us the way in which Fascism
is nurtured by the mass media. He says that the onslaught of mass media in middle class homes
has dragged them into the realms of material benefits alone that in fact have nurtured
capitalistic fascism among the middle class consumers of the mass media. This was again the
kind of the rhetoric of the leftist intellectuals upheld which argued that the main stream print as
well as the electronic media capitalized on the democratic spirit as well as the naiveté of the
society to disseminate seeds of print capitalism and fascism. 10 This movement was

This movement died a natural death with the passage of time, and Ma magazine, especially
Manorama Weekly has boosted its distribution more than it was expected. But, despite this the
same issues of upholding an essentialistic notion of femininity is inherent in a more militant
fashion in Manorama Weekly.

At the end of my analysis, however, when we look at the various thematic permutations and
combinations of the two magazines I have taken for study, we can see the following features. The
magazines tend to

1. Systematically enwrap women within the private sphere of home, by connecting them
to the institution of marriage, domesticity, familial values, etc.

2. On the surface, in these magazines, women seem to have the agential position as
editors, writers, reading objects as well as the represented objects

3. How a model of femininity is constructed over certain parameters which are based on
gender, class and caste

4. How women’s ‘concerns’ are aired through these magazines

5. How these magazines redefine the concept of the popular as “popular” vs “popular
elite”

6. How these magazines are implicated within a fairly long tradition of construction
different veneers of femininity over the ages
10
Anil Kumar AV, Kaavi Niramulla Plague. Publication details to be availed. Pp.60-61.
 7. How they have also withstood, negotiated and won over the intellectual tirades over
ages.

At the outset, these magazines make claims on the social positioning and capabilities of women
which posit them as nowhere inferior to men; nevertheless, we can also see that associate
women with love, matrimony and motherhood, house-making, housekeeping, etc. Somewhere
they also become the nodal point where they connect the public and private spheres where they
also give attention to earning (at home and office), women’s psychological and sexual problems,
behaviour and attitudes which basically constitute femininity, etc. Domesticity, as lived
experience and an ideology, also features as a major concern in these magazines. Here, through
analyses of these magazines, we can see the construction of the constituent components of the
‘feminine’, which is based on the Schwerpunkt of models and ideals which have been drawn from
history as well as imagination.