Face book and Twitter witnessed another rallying cry for women as the words “#metoo’ mushroomed all over the feeds, speaking of the magnitude of the sexual harassment faced by the women all across the world. Talking with reference to the incidences of eve teasing, forced sex, unpleasing gropes and unwelcoming brushes, a simple #metoo gave voice to all such dark phases and thought provoking incidences that the women across the globe encountered.
The movement, which took no time to gain momentum, commenced after the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted: “Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘#meToo’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” What was interesting to note is even men came forth to give voice to their bad experiences.
When asked about his take on the #meToo movement and its effectiveness, Karan Oberoi, who has been vocal about his perception on every issue, said, “Anything that creates awareness about it is an effective tool to bring about a change! This movement indeed encouraged women / men to come out on the open and address it as a larger malaise that exists in society!
But it’s another fact that the number of people coming up to bluntly share their experiences equalizes the number of those who still prefer to remain silent. Commenting further on the same, Karan said, “Brushing it under the carpet is never the answer! But the sheer enormity of the number of women that have gone through this ordeal itself reflects on the pitiable state of affairs as regards this! It’s so deeply saddening; that this patriarchal, misogynistic mindset’s that prevails even today! Being assertive and calling out the perpetrators is just the beginning of it! This movement hopefully would act as some kind of deterrent! But the need to book the violators, and create some kind of deterrent, and an urgent requirement to re educate everyone is the need of the hour! Call out, report, and make sure the culprits are brought to book!”
The whole scene began post the Harvey Weinstein incident, who was accused of sexually harassing his colleagues. Feeling disgusted at the entire episode further adds, “It boggles my mind that, in one of the more advanced, liberal industries, there are people like Harvey Weinstein that exist! With such an illustrious repertoire of films and being a part of a cinematic revolution and legacy he created, the behaviour like that of cavemen nullified the purity of the creative endeavours! Incidents like these just leave you so shocked and dismayed! I don’t want to take a puritanical stance on two consenting adults, but to use your power and influence to molest, cajole, threaten or black mail, or using their vulnerabilities to take advantage of them is horrible! You’d have to be half a man, to even want such a thing, where someone got intimate with you, without having a choice in the mater! It would make me feel quite disgusted with myself!”
But do such conditions exist in Hindi film industry as well?
Throwing light on the prevailing scenarios in Hollywood, the well-known actor of the Indian television industry said, “Yes there is an underbelly of Bollywood too! And yes, it’s important and necessary to call out the perpetrator here too! Talk, shame, bring to notice, any such experiences! The ONLY criteria for selection should be merit and merit alone!”