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As the skeletons come tumbling out with all the #MeToo posts, what is so beautiful to see is the sisterhood that women are showing to other women, even strangers, as they hold each other up.
It is deeply saddening and frustrating to see so many respected male celebrities, artists, journalists etc. being called out for sexual harassment. When my editor informed me about Kiran Nagarkar being named as one of the accused, I shuddered at the news. ‘Can no man be trusted?’ I thought.
But after my intital shock, I realized something positive. You know, these men have always been like this. The only difference is that earlier, women were scared to name them. But the more such men are named and shamed, the more fear will it instill in the current and future crop of such men.
They’ll think twice before sending women their dick pics or before hugging or touching someone against their will. They’d fear that everytime they pass a lewd comment or offer an indecent proposal, someone, somewhere, might expose them someday.
Also, what this naming and shaming is doing, is helping more and more women speak up and support each other. Patriarchy, which for so long, tried to feed us the narrative that women tear each other down, is right now shitting in its pants seeing the rise of sisterhood. Because when we unite, we are a force to reckon with.
We are giving each other the courage to tell our stories. We are opening our hearts to embrace our sisters while our tears mingle and we whisper into each other’s ears, ‘Me too, sister, me too.’
As a result, somewhere, the young intern is a little less hesitant in protesting against her boss’s overtures. Somewhere else, a wife is speaking up against a sexist joke her husband and his friends crack.
Young people everywhere are getting this message loud and clear that consent matters and if someone doesn’t respect that, they might have to pay dearly later on.
And hence, slowly we are building that equal world we’d been dreaming for so long.
Yes, I know that it’ll take a long time.
No, I’m not naive enough to think that every man will suddenly start respecting women from now on.
But this is a start, no? And what a brave and impactful start it is.
Let us keep the flame glowing. Let us keep carrying it forward. Each and every one of us in our own capacities. It is as easy and as difficult as that.
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: shutterstock
Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her 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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