It was game, (cor)set and match as Venus Williams made an exit from the ongoing French Open.

Of matches and media bashing

It was game, (cor)set and match as Venus Williams made an exit from the ongoing French Open. The American whose long limbs enable great court coverage had the cameras trained on her for her revealing outfits during play. She wore a frilly, lacy and lycra concoction. Venus also had transparent, skin-coloured underwear underneath her corset and is reported to have said at press conferences that, "lycra and lace make a great combination."

Women cannot whine about being treated as sex objects when they call attention to themselves in this nonsensical fashion. Women tennis players especially have been wearing the weirdest outfits off late, Serena and Venus in particular. The Williams may not care about how they look on court but they are reinforcing what women athletes are trying hard to erase, focus on their attire and appearance instead of their game.

Meanwhile, on another tack, media bashing seems to be the name of the game. The media came in for a complete bollocking at the (irony?) press club on Wednesday evening when Maoist supporters Gautam Navalakha, former editor Economic and Political Weekly and writer Arundhati Roy spoke. Gautam spoke about state structured violence saying one should not expect the 'corporate media' to write about that. Then, after saying India's silent middle class is guilty, hypocritical and culpable as we are quiet about this civil war, he also spoke about Tata and Essar doing some development on forest land and once again said, that he did not expect the corporate media to write about it, because the media's advertisements would stop.

Then, it was Arundhati Roy's turn to condemn the media, which, by the way, was falling over itself to take her pictures. Arundhati spoke about land grabbing and how corporates are circling the forest area like vultures, sipping their drinks in the first class lounge of airports. In her rather disjointed speech in which she said capitalism waged a 'jihad' against communism and called Israel's Flotilla raid an 'outrage.'

Arundhati also said it was nothing for corporates to buy the media and in certain instances senior journalists have been sold out. She wound down her speech saying the middle class and media are begging for us to become a military state. The corporate media continued clicking with their camera (made by corporate houses) and journalists, (the sold out set?) kept writing.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels