Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
The recent #MeToo campaign has been derided by some as hashtag activism, but let's look beneath the surface. Speaking up takes Courage.
The recent #MeToo campaign has been derided by some as hashtag activism, but let’s look beneath the surface. There is a lot more to speaking up when you are in a vulnerable place.
On October 15th, Alyssa Milano tweeted:
“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet: Suggested by a friend: If all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
She would have not imagined the level of response this tweet would receive. Thousands and thousands of women used the hashtag. The hashtag started to trend. Many men were seen opening up too. The hashtag was used to stand up against a lot of cultural beliefs, patriarchal norms, and influential personalities. No less. It became a revolution.
On the other hand, some critics couldn’t stop themselves from stating…this is how you show your vulnerability… If men want to know or help, let them trend a hashtag…this is how people are jerked out of their social media comforts. And so forth.
I chose to pen down my thoughts because this hashtag is much more then the success metrics or the criticism of the campaign. Let us step down from the statistics and understand why did so many people choose to use (or not use) the hashtag.
This campaign came forth after incidents like the Ram Rahim rape scandal and Harvey Weinstein scandal surfaced. It may have been targeted towards workplace assault in all kinds of industries, but people accounted every incident of their lives including childhood experiences, public place assaults, marital rapes, and many such situations when they felt violated under vulnerable circumstances. This explains the ‘magnitude’; and to some extent the success of the campaign.
It may not be important to trend a hashtag. But, we fail to understand that it is WE who can make the survivors comfortable. Help them open up. Help them trust us. Help them live. It is important that WE share our stories so that they don’t feel alone and cocoon themselves. It is important that WE empower them in our personal capacity so that we can prevent people from having such experiences in the first place. It is important that WE question the popular beliefs with religious innuendos without blindly believing in them.
Nobody deserves to go through this disgusting experience in their lives. Nobody deserves to live in fear. Nobody deserves to hate themselves. Nobody deserve to turn into a monster. Nobody wants to be a #MeToo.
Copywriter by choice. Dreamer by birth. Observer of society. Views are personal. Volunteer at BYOB Bangalore Chapter. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address