There was this time in the seventies and eighties (or so my mother tells me)
when every independent/working/ intelligent woman had a hand bag on arm and a Femina tucked under the other.... be it waiting at the bus stop or en-route shopping for veggies …..
Femina was the magazine for the new age educated Indian woman….. - a clear notch above the standard ’’ my mother in law ill treats me’’ kind of sop that Woman’s Era dished out….then came cosmopolitan which claimed to free the woman from the chains of inhibition (mostly of the sexual variety!) …in all fairness, it clearly positioned itself as a racy, westernized mag (informative sometimes…..but definitely very clear on the racy bit which is why , I suppose, every executive in the mag is shown with the sexiest legs, the shortest skirts and lying in the most impossible position on the corporate desk)
Of course Femina , in its ever eager effort to contain competition has come out looking very confused and ’’ wannabe Cosmo’’ . In the process its losing out some very loyal readers who are tired of flipping through pages of glam, ads, glossy pics, and meaningless aptitude tests and even more pathetic features….they may as well go in for the real thing!!!
So much for woman of substance - its more like ’’for the modern Indian pussy cat of substance’’ !!!!