DNA Edit: Ignoble for the Nobel

The culture of silence, associated with sexual misdemeanour and misogyny, is now a thing of the past. In the latest instance of protest that has been, no doubt, inspired by the #MeToo movement, six permanent members of the Nobel Academy body that selects the winner of the most prestigious prize in literature have resigned over the alleged unacceptable behaviour of Claude Arnault, a major cultural figure in Sweden, who is married to board member and poet Katarina Frostenson.

The committee is split down the middle as a bitter internal feud degenerated into a public spectacle. The academy’s image took a serious beating when 18 women came forward with accusations against Arnault. Earlier, Arnault had also been accused of leaking Nobel winners’ names. The old guard is obviously riled by the scandal and the protests. The battle for equality that women are waging in a progressive country like Sweden reveals the depth of the rot.

More importantly, the Nobel Academy that professes to stand for all the right values has been found to be wanting when it came to creating a level-playing field within its hallowed precincts. As institution after institution is rocked to its very foundations, it becomes amply clear how pervasive gender inequality is even in the so-called developed countries that feature high in the list of democracies.

What’s ironical is the fact that the literary world has turned out to be no better than moviedom. For all their grandiloquence and wisdom, writers and poets can be as depraved as some cinestars and film moguls.

However, in this case, the women are paying the price for the transgressions of Arnault. The forcing out of Sara Danius, the first woman to lead the Swedish Academy, has enraged many who consider her a victim in the gender-power dynamics. The plot gets murkier by the day.