The New Cleavage
A few women in Bollywood have had the spine to say, yes, there is sexual harassment and yes, we are all silent about it because this is India, where patriarchy runs the system
Sexual harassment is the new cleavage in our film industry. Some are happy to flaunt it, others are pretending not to have one.
I have been a huge fan of Vidya Balan and have often spoken out about the way she inspires me to embrace myself, with all my tics and warts, bulges and wrinkles. But something about the way she has been pussy-footing around the issue of sexual harassment has put me off.
In several of her promotional interviews, she has taken up two extremely contentious issue — body shaming and casting couch.
While I am rooting for her for the first one, I am hugely disappointed in the way she has decided to appear with a halo around her head. To say, “I never gave out those vibes,” or “I was never desperate enough (for men to hit on me),” or even, “I would have kick someone where it hurts if they’d dare to harass me,” is actually doing a huge disservice to her fans and the cause of women’s rights.
Does she mean that women who get harassed give out certain signals? Or women who are desperate for success deserve to get harassed? Problematic statements that make her appear sanctimonious and insensitive. You cannot say that you were never ambitious enough to respond to the advances of a man who had the power to change your life. Sexual harassment is not always what happens at work. It happens everywhere. To every one. In some form or the other. She should know, having top-lined a film about child sex abuse not so long ago and a career-defining role as Silk, the woman who willing turned herself into a sex icon in the 70s.
Had Ms Balan been truly honest, shown one iota of courage, she would have tagged herself in the #metoo campaign that shook the world. This is not to say she has been subjected to sexual harassment and is lying about it, but perhaps she has not really given the idea the kind of sincere introspection it deserves.
A few women in Bollywood have had the spine to say, yes, there is sexual harassment and yes, we are all silent about it because this is India, where patriarchy runs the system. But once again, there has been no ‘coming out’ here or ‘calling out’. Revelations are couched in euphemism and no one is willing to stick their neck out and shake up the system.
Coming out as gay in our country has its risks, given the law and the environment. But what is stopping our women in positions of power to come out and say, “Yes, I have been exploited? Yes, I have faced sexual harassment, and no, it has nothing to do with my ambition, or the vibes I give out?”
The problem is with us, really. We still believe that a woman, a public figure, an icon, has to be ‘unsullied’. We still believe that a woman who is upfront about her sexuality, and knows how to channel it, use it to her advantage, is a vamp. Why can’t a woman hit on a man, and not be judged for it? And why should it be okay to harass a woman, who on other occasions, has shown a willingness to be intimate with a man?
Ms Balan, of all people, should know that a woman may actually want men to admire her, be drawn to her sexiness. Just as not everyone who likes a little mischief, is begging to be harassed, not everyone wants to go to bed with a book.
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(Scribbler, scribe, traveller Chandrima Pal takes you through the sexual landscape of today)