Bollywood's Me Too momevent gains momentum, dark secrets revealed | Nation@9
  • 6 years ago
If you've read sigmund freud, everything that people do is somehow related to sex. Although his theories on the human psychology don't enjoy as much credit today as they once did, he became infamous for his works. What we're hearing today seems to confirm the cliche of the bad and ugly about men and their obsession with sex. In 1976, a U.S researcher published something now called the Hite report. It shocked America. You may have never heard of it, but it's the single most revolutionary piece in sexual empowerment. A woman until then was stereotyped into the abstaining, chaste home-maker. Hite told the world for the first time that women also enjoyed sex, that women masturbated, that women also had extra-marital affairs. A conversative america vilified him. Their cultural dogma, devoid of the truth of the world, was unable to handle it. Battling sexism, promoting gender equality have long been giving lip service. The english language i'm speaking is inherently so sexist, that if you just step back and think. The obvious will shock you. Human, female. The other sex is even defined in context with the male. In 1903 emmeline pankhurst began the suffragette movement. Women in the british empire did not even have the right to vote. It's only in 1921 that that basic gender enfranchisement was done. The 2nd world war brought to the world the realisation of the role of women, as nurses, as mechanics. The women of bletchley park who helped break the german engima code now have movies made of them. With gender empowerment, the world has had to deal with sexism. Male dominated industries, company boards, governments. Today the pandoras box has been opened on sexual harassment. Last week was the anniversary of the me too movement. Women are coming out in greater than ever numbers to name and shame the perverts who've tried to use power and positions of privilege to become sexual predators. Men are realising that saying it was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago is no longer considered a defence. India's film industry, media industry are being jolted. Those men who have stained these professions with their perversions need to get their comeuppance. In no uncertain terms. But while naming and shaming has made this a global issue of urgency, that has to be only the first step. As we speak, conversations are happening in drawing rooms and clubs, in board rooms and office floors. What's okay? What's not okay? How do you ask a girl out now without being accused? Should employees be segregated to avoid stigma, harassment or what some just see as the jhanjhat of dealing with these cases. Those are all wrong and dangerous things. They need to be fought with a cultural revolution. Let's begin one tonight. As a society, nation, world and across genders and sexualities. There has to be a new civilisational filter on what's okay and what's harassment. We need to go beyond me too and ask the right questions? What is justice for victims of sexual harassment, men being ostra.