#MeToo social media campaign is a revelation and very welcome
Telling the truth, George Orwell said, is a revolutionary act in the time of universal deceit. The deluge of support for the #MeToo social media campaign where mostly women and some men have surgically struck at the core of sexual assault and harassment saying they have been victims has had its intended effect. Such has been the mushroom cloud of protest against the sexual offenders that many men and women have admitting to their feeling of guilt with a #SoDoneChillin campaign.
Though the #MeToo campaign owed its origins to Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano, who shared her story about the predatory ways of Hollywood honcho Harvey Weinstein and encouraged her followers to share similar experiences, it generated a tidal wave of support among women who had been assaulted or harassed not because they were less aware but because they were not empowered enough in the dog-eat-dog world of powerplay.
As the sordid stories came tumbling out, affected women, men and transgenders, formed a community of shared pain and mutual support. If not anything else, #MeToo made sexual predators a talking point and demanding solutions an overarching imperative.
Sexual victims of every kind retreat into a shell, not because they are less capable but because they are conditioned by their reflexes to avoid further decimation of their dignity. In one virtual stroke, considering it played out online, the campaign dissolved the stigma attached to the victim and transferred it back to the offender. Bravo.
Perhaps that's the reason many men confessed to crossing the line in tweets and social media posts, claiming ignorance in their youth about how certain pranks, gestures and remarks were unpalatable and even offensive to women while they thought it was "plain chillin."
Other men have said that they may not be the perpetrators but are equally guilty of allowing a dismissive mindset to prevail in everyday guy talk about women, be it among friends, peers or colleagues. Critics might ask what next, after the collective comradeship of outpouring and introspection in the heat of the moment. Nobody is naive enough to believe that the Weinstein instinct will ebb overnight. Or that women, who give in to the demand for favours or in rare cases misuse the law, will step back given their individual dynamics and perception of the rat race.
But yes, sexuality should never ever be allowed to become a tool of trade in any society that prides itself in calling itself gender-neutral and treats all human beings the same. If anything, the movement has encouraged victims to speak up in once voice and report such acts of human rights violation.