Hashtag activism was perhaps the most dominant component this year not only for women, who took to the social media in protest, but also for online conversation that is impacting thinking in the real world
Now that the initiators of the #MeToo campaign have been named as “people of the year” by conventional media, it is an acknowledgment of the power of the digital platform to gallop up and become a tool for women’s empowerment and tidal change. Social media, which was so far considered an air-headed shoutout for seasonal activism, saleable trends and flighty fame, was actually leavened by mature debates and actionable relevance.
Sexual harassment or sexual violence graduated from being just a conscience pricker or moral outrage on discussion boards to actually forcing a course correction in the real world. Thanks to the faceless women who spoke up against their abusers at the workplace, the offenders had to step down from their exalted positions in industry and governance with the delivery of retrospective justice. For the first time, global citizenry tamed a medieval expression of domination and coercion into being a despicable misfit of the modern world. It even fostered a counter movement of men who took to the confession box, admitting they had violated boundaries or unknowingly offended women around them. For the first time, gender neutrality didn’t seem like a slogan but a societal sensitivity that will shape the way we build a new world. And most importantly, for the first time again, it forced a revision of the feminist movement itself as regular women asked their privileged and successful counterparts why they still tolerated predatory men and remained tight-lipped despite being aware of their odious character. Did success mean only breaking the glass ceiling and becoming an acolyte of an elite preserve of Fortune 500IJ Did it mean compromising others and becoming nothing more than a black suitIJ
In India, the #MeToo campaign surged too, albeit with little impact on retributive justice, but set the ball rolling for a discourse on gender parity. A pattern of women empowerment emerged on Twitter this year. The Women’s World Cup hashtag #wwc17 helped make the case for market majors to invest equally in women’s cricket, which has a potential for spectator engagement and traction. There were avid conversations on triple talaq that saw a volcanic outpouring by generations of wronged women at the mercy of male fancy than logic. The #Ain’tNoCinderella movement, following the stalking of a young woman by a politician’s son and a moral supercop’s statement that girls should not be out at the midnight hour, generated a wave of cross-sectional protest and defiance against a chauvinist curfew. Independent adult everyday women from the smallest of cities and across age groups posted videos in a relay race, claiming their right not to be judged and arguing they had as much right to work night shifts as they did to let their hair down. On the celebrity index, @deepikapadukone became the most followed on Twitter, as the fringe threatened to chop off her nose Surpanakha style, over Padmavati. In the post #MeToo world, she didn’t need a bhai to rescue her. legions of young women did that by just pushing up her brand value where it mattered most, on social media. And by the end of it all, women had decided to organise and collate their efforts online and manifest them offline, a synergy that worked as much for claiming rights as for making their kind of celebratory identity statement. The old #100 saris campaign actually resulted in pride in our textile heritage, accelerating its revival.
For the first time perhaps, a social media crusade for gender justice complemented the one that has been tirelessly fought for years on the ground. For the first time, “I” became “we.” For the first time, it brought about a revolutionary change at the primary level of the justice delivery system, the police. The Kolkata police, which at one time was considered the biggest obstacle and a judgmental bully when it came to registering harassment complaints of young women, surprisingly moulted and effected changes in the complaint registry system even before #MeToo could become a wave. With memories of the Nihar Bano rape case inside a police station and the hounding of a Park Street reveller for staying out late scarring citizens’ minds, the turnaround was more about shock than awe. “We want you to be very, very angry about the leering verbal and physical abuses, to be not afraid,” it posted on its Facebook page. It has now started a project called “Dear boys” in schools to treat girls and their bodies with respect. The Mumbai police, too, overturned the helplessness of a New Year’s midnight molestation from years ago, by taking swift action on the ground for any girl who tweeted them about stalking, misbehaviour, abuse or harassment. This empathy may not have had an impact yet in the hinterland but a female complainant, who so far felt distressed and traumatised by the very idea of reporting a misdemeanour, has at least felt a reassuring pat.
Most surprisingly, it forced young Indian men to think and revise their attitudes in their everyday dealings with women. A gender-based assault is not always about a violent rape, extreme abuse or slut-shaming but about a culture where sexualising a woman by way of a hand gesture, inappropriate words or a crass intonation is seen as normal. Where a woman’s “no” is still interpreted as a sign of Victorian bashfulness to be negotiated with guile rather than it being considered a vociferous rejection. The men’s counter-narrative #HowIWillChange had proponents asking women in their homes, colleagues and peer groups what behavioural traits had irked them during their interactions all these years. The shared hashtag was not just about pouring your guilt, shame and pain online but about starting micro-level conversations that would ultimately result in a paradigm shift.
Social media, as an alternative space for unpoliced truths and as a democratic platform upholding the right to be heard, has always been crucial for women’s empowerment. Twitter data as of early November showed that users in the United States, United Kingdom, India, France, and Canada used the hashtag #MeToo most heavily. In the safety of numbers, the anonymity of online handles, the situational familiarity of case studies and the surge of empathy, reluctant Indian women decided that they would no longer slip a part of themselves through the cracks but hold themselves up, warts and all. Some spoke out robustly. Those who could not just typed in their acknowledgment, repeating and recirculating the hashtag till it acquired gale force momentum. Many individual battles of disgust and despair found catharsis and redress in this collective group therapy. In a world summarised by graphic images, #MeToo had unparalleled stories of survival and hope. In that sense, this campaign, woven around strings of words and thoughts, even crossed the limits of traditional mainstream media, which has shoved gender issues as boring and opinionated pieces to be placed on lean news days.
The campaign gave credibility to women as a potent market force. By the end of this decade, women are expected to surpass men with a greater share of the productive workforce. Top brands have already started reworking their storyboards to reflect a 50/50 world, with an international clothing major unfurling the #UnitedByHalf campaign. A detergent brand at home exhorted men to #share the load of dirty laundry, a watch major celebrated the ‘new Indian woman,’ Ms World Manushi Chillar and actor Akshay Kumar mainstreamed menstrual hygiene as a major health imperative while two sanitary napkin brands went viral with the hashtag #I’mNotdown and #TouchThePickle, deciding that whispers never did achieve anything. And if you followed a telecom major, you would know that a wife could be as much a boss as a caring partner if both were connected.
Hashtags were originally conceived to filter content online and guide interest groups to an easy engagement of ideas. Today, it has become one of the most interactive modes of dialogue between people that is impacting thinking in the real world and giving it asset value.
(The writer is Associate Editor, The Pioneer)