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Many like Utsav Chakraborty are lurking free in workplaces, harassing women co-workers as they please. How long can women suffer in silence? With #MeToo, its time to fight back.
I came across an article in one of the most widely read medical journal in the world this week. After reading I could not help penning this down. The narrator is every woman in the workforce.
For years, I suffered with a face that was brave
My reputation, my sanity, my career- I had to save
All inappropriate comments, innuendoes, I took in my stride
Facing harassment, my true emotions I did hide
For the cost of speaking up was too high to ignore
It could have sent my career crashing to the floor…
In a world where women mentors were few
I sought mentorship where available, it’s true
I was driven by a desire for advancement in my career
Yet each step forward I took with fear…
**
Fast forward to the present, it is 2018
A new movement the world has now seen
With #MeToo, I have found the courage to break
The barriers of silence, not worrying, what is at stake
The movement has made millions of women at the workplace
Feel empowered to address the harassment they face
Ah… I must be delusional if I think at the workplace men
Would suddenly change their behavior towards women-
In a patriarchal society, used to masculinistic hegemony
They have turned back on women with their misogyny…
Claiming that mentoring women is difficult in this climate
False allegations of sexual misconduct against them can be made!
Disheartening this is- mentorship is invaluable
This reluctance of male mentors can cause harm incalculable
To the careers of young women with grit and ambition
The last thing we want is to see an attrition
In the numbers of women in the elite workforce
My sincere hope is that things will change their course
True gender equality is still years away
Yet with #MeToo, we have come a long way…
Earlier Published here.
Image Source Flickr, Me Too by Prentsa Aldundia.
I am a woman, a physician, a mother and an aspiring writer rolled into one. I write about various aspects of my life, and my preferred form of writing is poetry (or rhyming verses). read more...
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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.
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