WORLD WOMEN'S DAY (Mar 8)

From Sampath’s Desk:

WORLD WOMEN'S DAY (MARCH 8)

TAKING A CRITICAL VIEW OF 'CASTING COUCH' COMPLAINTS

                                           

Oh, Adams, what is happening to some of you? Why do you remain oblivious of our cultural values and ethical ethos? Can’t you sensitize yourselves regarding the Eves? Please remove from your biased dictionary the egoistic and domineering terms - ‘male chauvinism’, ‘male-dominated society’, ‘women are weaker section’, ‘I am a male, you’re only a female, mind it’, etc. - that portended power-assertive male hegemony, implying and reinforcing the so-called ‘subservient status’ of women. Shed your age-old offensive ego, prejudiced and partisan psyche, scornful attitude, sneering approach, superiority complex and sniping actions towards women who, don’t you know, hold half the sky? Why then the ride roughshod over and browbeating attitude towards them. The 'casting couch' complaint galore is a pointer!

 

From the cradle to the coffin, females feel uncomfortable! Does it speak well of males and the society dominated by them? Outside the home and at workplaces, common abuses the women sometimes face from some quarters included misogyny, bullying, name-calling, recriminations, lewd gestures, lecherous gazing, lascivious ogling and inappropriate advances towards them which incidentally are not any country-specific but rather universal. I don’t blame the entire men-folk. Of course, a majority of men are already progressive, liberal, broadminded, and protective of women’s honour and dignity.

 

The battery and barrage of rude shock experiences suffered by some women leading to complaints even from some women of name and fame and with a good status in the society 'unmasking' some highly placed men with promiscuity and immorality who reportedly asked them to 'adjust' and/or 'cooperate' have been rather shocking and startling. However, it is gladdening that the victim women don't put up with them and no longer suffer the ignominy in silence nowadays; they now stand up to expose the culprits. It is a good trend. It happens to even high-profile and high-status women in society as well.  If it were so, one can well imagine the vulnerability and predicament of the less fortunate women and girls.

 

The ‘casting couch’ complaints made by eminent women including a few Honourable women Members of Parliament and State Legislatures and the ongoing ‘#MeToo campaign’ don’t augur well for the ‘gender equality’ and ‘women empowerment’ we are bragging about! The complaint galore from some women against some VVIPs, VIPs, celebrities and towering personalities regarding overtures for 'sensual favours’ is a curse and malediction. Not that such incidents had never happened in the past; they did take place sporadically but the irony was that victims never chose to spill the beans either fearing backlash from the perpetrators, or for loss of name and fame, or due to other compulsions. Only now, victims increasingly speak up exposing the ‘sensuous appetite’ of some males seeking to satiate it by knocking at the wrong doors taking advantage of their close proximity to ‘probable victims’ with salacious designs that have certainly stirred the Hornet’s nest. Far from supporting the victims, some resort to slut-shame them with ulterior motives - saddening indeed! Accredited and eminent men should act as role models for right values, and a high degree of moral, ethical and righteous virtues towards women.

 

For centuries, women had suffered a lot. The situation is slowly changing and so are the scenes for the better. When liberation of women from gender discrimination is taking place gradually and steadily and while they are coming out of the protected cocoons they have been confined to and fettered with so far, claiming their due rights and for achieving many things in the society and at the world level at large, thanks to the never-before positive awareness towards women, still, some are placing stumbling blocks! The murky casting couch episodes and related complaints militate against ‘gender justice’.

 

To quote Mahatma Gandhi, "Womanhood is not restricted to the kitchen. Only when the woman is liberated from the slavery of the kitchen that her true spirit may be discovered!” He criticized the passion for male progeny, abortion of female foetuses and still worse, infanticide of baby girls. As long as we don't consider girls as natural as our boys, our nation will be in a dark eclipse. If only a woman is able to walk alone hassle-free at any time including midnight and reach her destination - a workplace or elsewhere, and back home - without any problem, nuisance, or harm - physical or psychological - one can safely and surely assert that the Indian society has come of age and won the real freedom for our women. Otherwise, it would only mean ‘freedom half won, that too only for men’.

 

It doesn’t bode well for the so-called gender-bias-free and women-empowered society that we seek to usher in. It is time the society treated females with the due honour and dignity they richly deserved. A psyche change is called for on the part of those who mattered!

 

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 only remains a paper tiger having neither teeth nor wielding the knife. The ground reality has to change.

         

The womenfolk feel imperilled as a race, irrespective of their age! Enough is enough. Come on; let us turn a new leaf and venerate womanhood in all its forms! After all, they are like our mothers, sisters, daughters, daughters-in-law, etc! Aren’t they? Don't you have such female relations in your life?

                                      

 

R.SAMPATH

8/3/2021

(Dedicated to World Women's Day - March 8)