Sexist joke by Times of India causes uproar!

Timing is the most essential ingredient that makes you a hit or a miss. And India’s most widely read English daily failed to grasp that concept when they posted a sexist joke aimed at women and that too, on Women’s Day (of all days).

Under the section SMS joke of the day, a Question read: “Why haven’t they sent a woman to the moon yet?

Answer: It doesn’t need cleaning.

Apparently, the joke didn’t go down well with the daily’s readership. Following the publication, scores of tweets angry at the crude jibe at females showed up at Twitter. One such user termed his disappointment at the joke by displaying a picture of the page where the joke was published and captioning it like this:-

 

Times of India staying classy on #InternationalWomensDay. pic.twitter.com/bucM3IivRk

— Debayan Sinharoy (@natselrox) March 8, 2015

Earlier, the nation was already infuriated by a ban placed on the rape documentary India’s Daughter by the government. The joke proved to be fuel to the fire and angered another female Twitter user who vented her anger in the following words:-

Oh the content and banning of #IndiasDaughter wasn’t enough misogyny for this week? https://t.co/NJo3bpQiqB

— Pallavi P (@Pallaweee) March 8, 2015

Times of India should have refrained from publishing the joke, keeping in mind controversies as regards to female rights that are being discussed in the media these days. Bollywood celebs such as Alia Bhatt, Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush all wished their fans Women’s Day, whereas Times of India erred on the occasion. Whether it was a deliberate joke to poke humor or an accidental act, I guess it’s safe to say not a lot of people were left smiling at the end of the day!  In today’s age, women are doing more than cleaning everywhere, be it the moon or right here, on mother Earth!