New Delhi: E-commerce website Myntra will change its logo following an email from Mumbai Police’ cyber crime cell in response to a complaint by an activist who had said the old logo was ‘offensive’ to women.
Reports have said that a woman, Naaz Patel, had filed the complaint in December, 2020, calling for action to be taken against Myntra for sporting a logo which she found “resembled a naked woman.”
Myntra’s logo was a multi-coloured letter ‘M’.
According to the Times of India, Naaz’s complaint stated “the overall placement of the colour scheme” of the letter “M” in the logo was “obscene to the eyes of any person of normal prudence” and claimed it was “deliberate placement of the colour scheme” to “depict a woman’s vagina and such is again highlighted with the colour scheme of depicting her legs spread out in a suggestive manner”.
Myntra’s logo.
The complaint argued that this “portrayal of a woman and her private parts… as an object of lust” would “corrupt the mind of the viewers and even excite them” and “this will lead to further victimisation of women in our society”, the newspaper reported.
DCP Rashmi Karandikar of Mumbai Police’s Cyber Crime Department has been quoted by Business Today as having said, “We found that the logo was offensive in nature for women. Following the complaint, we sent an email to Myntra and their officials came and met us.”
Indian Express has reported that responding to the complaint, “the Flipkart-backed e-commerce giant has said that it will change its logo within a month’s time.”
Myntra has begun the process of changing the logo on marketing platforms, its app and on packaging material, according to reports.
The complainant Patel is the founder of an NGO Avesta Foundation, which has tweeted congratulating her on the development.
Several people have taken to Twitter to comment on the flippant nature of the complaint.
Myntra, which was set up in 2007, was acquired by Flipkart in 2014.
Note: This article was updated with details of the complaint at 3:22 pm on January 31, 2021.