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Many common criticisms of #meToo focus on the 'poor men' who now have to watch their behaviour. It's time to put the focus back where it's needed - on women who have always faced harassment and never had the opportunity to speak up.
Many common criticisms of #meToo focus on the ‘poor men’ who now have to watch their behaviour. It’s time to put the focus back where it’s needed – on women who have always faced harassment and never had the opportunity to speak up.
#MeToo India has engulfed us in more ways than one. Media – print and social – have ensured we are in the know of all stories of abuse and harassment, most of which were known in hush-hush conversations, while a few others shocked us!
But let us all acknowledge one fact: in more ways than one, the stories on workplace harassment have for long existed and then hidden and remained ensconced in personal accounts to counsellors, personal diaries, HR departments and in nightmares.
#MeToo has been about spontaneous outpouring of harassment and abuse faced by women, but like all movements, soon enough it has seen massive criticism from diverse quarters as well, a few of which I will attempt to discuss and then debunk!
#MeToo was never about playing victims, it was about outing the behaviour of normalising sexual abuse of power at the hands of a few men. The #MeToo tales are not tales of women playing victims, they are accounts of abuse, of workplace transgressions that need to be called out.
#MeToo is not about about demonising men. It is about catharsis of something that took a long time to come!
Varsha Pillai is a former television journalist who quit the fast lane in media when she moved to the erstwhile 'laid back city' called Bangalore. She earnestly believes that she can ‘write stories that people read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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