#MeToo Campaign and I

The last week found all of social media flooding with the #MeToo campaign. The campaign that was sparked by the Harvey Weinstein allegations to convey the magnitude of sexual abuse in our society led a lot of people, men and women alike, to open up. Some just posted the hashtag while others wrote about their experiences in detail.

I, for one, was confused about it. Mostly because there have been so many, that it will be exhausting to open that Pandora’s box. More so because it will fill me with rage, rage that won’t do any good in it’s true form.

I was catching up with a friend when he mentioned the futility of this campaign and how it is useless and propagates self-victimization. Needless to say, that made me angry, sad, upset, and everything in between. How could anyone accuse any such initiative, of people coming out and talking about abuse, of self-victimization?

Isn’t it obvious that none of the victims are looking for pity? Isn’t that the reason why none of us have chosen to speak about the abuses perpetrated on us over the years. That and the fact that we still try to blame and shame the victim. The same friend also went on to put the contemporary fashion under spotlight. According to him, as many others, surge of testosterone is the primal instinct which is triggered by any show of extra skin. Extra in this case is subjective, for some experience the trigger of those instincts when they see a little bit of arm of another person, or the tiny feet of a baby.

So, on behalf of all those who participated in the #MeToo campaign, and also on behalf of those who have been abused in some form or another but could not openly participate in the campaign, I am writing this today.

#MeToo campaign is

- not about self-victimization

- not a collective pity-party that we have launched to massage each other’s hurt self-esteem

- not about making everyone feel insecure or become cynical of their surroundings

- not just about women who have been abused but also men

It is, in fact, about

- Conveying the magnitude of sexual abuse and how prevalent it is

- The fact that is not just concentrated in one industry, place, or situation

And most of all, it is about offering a hand to show that we are there for each other. So that somewhere, someone can see this support and can come forward and talk about their experience; for you believe it or not, half the population on this planet is silently suffering and not talking about it. They are still thinking about how they could have done things differently to avoid those horrific experiences. I know that I am still thinking about it.