#MeToo, respond Mumbai women, recount abuse

MUMBAI: Mumbaikars have added their voice to the world wide outcry with their stories of being sexually harassed. The hashtag #metoo has flooding social media after women stepped forth with accusations against

Hollywood

movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

“If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote `Me too.' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,“ tweeted American actress Alyssa Milano on Sunday , sparking the campaign.

Copy-pasting the status to highlight how prevalent this is among woman in the city ,

Sawan Dutta

, a video blogger from Mumbai wrote: “#metoo and just about every female I know who's used a dtc bus, man.“

“About time I did, too.#MeToo, of course, although this can never be a solution but a beginning, nevertheless,“ wrote author Jahnavi Achrekar. After several years of keeping her tale of abuse to herself, a woman from Andheri feels emboldened to come out. “This is not to gain pity points or a weird sense of sisterhood. It happens. Groping, power play , inti midation in closed spaces and outright assault at places like concerts and pubs,“ she wrote using the hashtag #metoo.

“I was in college at the time and out with friends attending an upscale party at a lounge bar like most teens do. I remember standing in a crowded room with loud music and strobe lights. One couldn't really see anything, and then suddenly I felt a hand go up my thigh. I was in absolute shock for a few seconds and saw nobody on turning. I remember going numb. I haven't spoken about it to anyone. Not even to a girlfriend or my mother. I don't know why . I also remember wondering if I shouldn't have been there that night. It's only now that I realize, none of it was my fault. #MeToo isn't just a hashtag for me. It's upsetting to know there are so many of us. This isn't normal,“ she explained.

It isn't just women identifying themselves as assault victims and expressing their concerns of abuse on a bus, a train, the street, at work or at home.Men too have expressed their solidarity claiming that they had never known a woman who had not been sexually violated.

Shantanu Kanade

is one such man lending support to the #MeToo movement and highlights how young boys too have often been preyed upon. “I have not been sexually harassed in my life till date... but I would be failing in my duty as a human being if I did not express solidarity with all those people who have had this rather unfortunate experience, including the heterosexual men who may have found themselves at the wrong end of this menace.“

Claudelle Mariola Monis, a language & communication lecturer, deplored how harassment has been normalized. “Because my reflexes demand I hold my bag in front of my chest as I walk in public spaces, in a desperate bid to save myself from unwanted touching. Because the lewd phrases, catcalling, and leering continue irrespective of how old I am, what I'm wearing, or how I look,“ she says.