Sigh

I rarely listen to the radio, but even if I did I probably would have avoided Meow FM (warning: loud obnoxious music at that link) because the ads (numerous women meowing at the camera) disturbed me. I’m not sure what I think of the idea of a women’s radio station in the first place – I mean, what makes it women only? What specific appealing-to-women characteristics does it have? Why associate women with cats? (Not that there is anything wrong with cats. Cats are excellent.) Why the bright-pink-and-black colour scheme? And so on and so forth.

Today, I tuned in to the station for the first time because Jai was to be interviewed and I felt that hearing him meowing on air would be amusing. (It wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, since he seemed to enjoy it. An embarrassed publicly-purring Jai, now, would be hilarious). The interview itself was rather good, but I made the mistake of not turning the radio off immediately after it ended. The station only required about five minutes after the interview to make my brain bleed.

It seems that Meow’s “women only” theme has led to some people believing that it is “feminist”. The woman presenting the show hurried to correct this misconception, Meow is not like that. To prove that the women of Meow like and appreciate men* (because, you know, feminists don’t) she asked listeners to call in and answer the question of the day – to describe an incident when they had been thankful for the existence of men. She began with her own experience – a boy at school had been harassing her and she got some other male friends to beat him up. A meow fan called in with a story of her own – something about being out late with female in Delhi and feeling insecure because of the men in cars slowing down as they passed, etc. Until some boys they knew were called to rescue them and gallantly escort them home. The Radio Jockey then proceeded to compound the stupid by asking the caller what she was thinking, going out in Delhi so late at night.

Apparent conclusion? Non-feminists value men because they are needed…to save them from other men? Sigh.

I turned the radio off and wept (and laughed a bit) for mankind.



*If this post weren’t about something else altogether, it might be interesting to talk about why when we talk about anything that isn’t about men we immediately feel the need to assure them that we really aren’t excluding them, that we still like them, etc. The worry that men might feel left out on a women’s radio station. Etc. (I speak for myself, I do this sometimes. I try to spread out the gender-related posts because I know a lot of people who read this thing aren’t feminists or aren’t women or both. I shouldn’t have to do this, and I’m trying to remind myself of that).