The Myntra Logo from a Feminist Perspective Report

Myntra is an American e-commerce website based on the effortless shopping of premium brands. The company’s previous logo is one of the most offensive designs of 2021. The original and new logo versions resemble the letter M colored in pink and purple, but they have a significant difference that women worldwide found unacceptable. The reason for choosing this logo lies in the unexpected contradictions it raised in society. The Myntra logo proves that companies should think through the design message and ensure its inclusiveness and transnationality do not hurt marginalized groups’ feelings.

The first feature of the Myntra logo that comes under the scrutiny of transnational feminism is the commercialization of female sexuality. As this social movement considers the role of gender and sexuality beyond the confines of one state, the international community cannot tolerate Indian companies’ negligent attitude toward the female body (Mason, 2017). Since Mumbai Police’s cybercrime department reported that the logo reflects a naked woman after several complaints, Myntra could not ignore this publicity and made slight changes to the design (Piper, 2021). For instance, the orange and purple elements do not overlap, thus, eliminating further complaints using the asymmetrical colors. This way, the company eliminated complaints and became more tolerant toward everyone.

When companies like Myntra sexualize femaleness and womanhood, it hurts women’s feelings who feel oppressed and damaged because of their sexuality. The artwork’s significant feature is its publicity gained through the use of Twitter and Facebook, which is much faster and cost-efficient compared to previous efforts of promoting public campaigns (Higgs, 2015). If India accepted the logo publicly, it would exacerbate rape culture, which is explicitly and tacitly represented in movies, jokes, and daily lives (Mason, 2017). People around the world utilize equivocal phrases that root rape culture even more. Additionally, such a tendency is associated with the sexual coercion that half of the female adolescents experience in Canada (Mason, 2017). The fact that the logo portrays a woman lying down with her legs wide open already points at the sexual objectivization of females when they primarily become an object of female desire rather than humans. Therefore, it hurts women’s feelings worldwide since most of them aim to identify as the whole human with enough authority and self-determination.

In contrast, other cultures can view the logo’s feature of neglecting Western viewpoints towards sexuality and the female body through the perspective of marginalization of feminist space. For instance, Chinese feminists strive to assert their gender identity so that women are no longer invisible. If Myntra were located in China, where “women’s oppression was not founded in the fact that women were made to symbolize the body,” the logo would never be considered offensive and banned (Rajan, 2018, p. 285). It proves that looking at one artwork using fundamental feminist ideas to the significant culture result in its irrelevancy in the local context.

As mentioned above, the publicity, the second significant feature of the Myntra logo, is an example of how feminism crossing borders has become transnational. Although Liz’s case raised by Higgs (2015) differs from the Myntra logo’s oppression of females, both situations involve police engagement and international attention. When locals reported Liz being raped by the gang and left to die to police, the criminals only received restorative punishment. In contrast, when the case became a discussion topic for the international community after the involvement of women’s rights activists, the offenders got the deserved punishment. It can be reflected in the Myntra logo’s case as well. If the police did not receive complaints from Naaz Patel, the Avesta activist group’s founder, then the police would never encourage Myntra to change its logo. Although transnational feminism does not get supporters as fast as the activists hope it will, its members’ commitment to making a change inspires international companies to terminate any discriminating actions and designs.

To conclude, defending its reputation on the international scene is critical for a company like Myntra, which grows daily to become the top e-commerce company in India. For women, the primary consumer segment of the company, the humiliating logo signals that the company is not inclusive and tolerant of gender, body, and sexuality. Such offensive action decreases the company’s sales due to losing clients. Moreover, in a local context, it exacerbates rape culture and affects people’s attitudes toward female sexuality in a negative way. It attracts international attention, especially from Western feminists, who find the logo provocative. As a result, Western feminism tries to intervene in Indian feminist ideas and alter the population’s tolerance towards such companies as Myntra.

References

Higgs, E. T. (2015). #JusticeforLiz: Power and privilege in digital transnational women’s rights activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 344–347. Web.

Mason, C. L. (2017). Transnational Feminism: Representations and Border Crossings. In N. Mandell & J. Johnson (Eds.), Feminist Issues: Race, Class and Sexuality (pp. 62–89). Pearson. Web.

Piper, D. (2021). Is this really the most offensive logo of 2021? Creative Blog. Web.

Rajan, H. (2018). The ethics of transnational feminist research and activism: An argument for a more comprehensive view. Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 43(2), 269–300. Web.