The dialogue on sexual harassment at the workplace may be out in the open, but most women (and men) are unwilling to take on their harassers, fearing the repercussions.
A lot of times, women don’t take immediate action against their harassers. Like Mallika Dua, who did not speak up against Akshay Kumar when the incident happened, but came out in the open only after the clip went viral. In her defence, Mallika said that she did not act on impulse since she didn’t want to jeopardise her career.
A week ago, Priyanka Chopra said in an interview that there are many Harvey Weinsteins in Bollywood but neither she nor any other star has revealed the names. Vidya Balan also said that often women don’t come out since they don’t want to be part of a controversy, and are afraid that producers won’t give them work post the incident.
Mallika Dua said that she did not act on impulse since she didn’t want to jeopardise her career.
Actress Hamsa Nandini agrees with Vidya and shares an incident that she faced. “Women remain silent because they don’t know how to react and take it forward. When I was new to the (Telugu film) industry, I experienced a situation where people threw sexist remarks at me. I did not react because I was new to the language, culture and did not know how to react,” she says and adds that “fear of embarrassment” is a big thing.
“Women worry as to how the people in the industry would perceive and portray her post the incident. Also, if the person who sexually harasses is powerful, then he might use his clout to stop them from getting work. It happens in our industry, and it happened to me early in my career,” she says.
Actress Rashmi Gautam feels that women don’t react since they don’t want it to affect the project and since later, they have to work with the same people anyway. “Women remain silent because they don’t want the incident to affect the project and they are also bound by a contract which wouldn’t let them leave. It happened to me when I started my career, but I did not bring it up at that point because I didn’t want the incident to affect me, and I was not ready to go through the torture,” she says, adding, “The next morning, the actress has to come to the sets and work with the same people anyway! When women report such things and look out for support, people blame us for wearing short clothes etc. Even fully-clad women are abused and harassed in several ways. Just because we do item songs, and are keeping quiet, it doesn’t mean that we are available and open to sexual harassment.”
Rashmi Gautam
It is difficult for women to speak up because they don’t feel safe or empowered enough, feels actress Tannistha Chatterjee. “In the case of the sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, it has taken so many years and so many powerful women to speak up. I think women being silent will only change when we have many women in a position of power, where we have a choice, where, even if we expose a person it doesn’t matter because there are other options for us. Right now, this isn’t the case. So all we do is we choose to not work with people who make those passes at us. We don’t feel empowered or safe enough to name that person in public. This will happen only when there is a bigger power behind you,” says Tannistha.
“In a professional space, the onus is on the women to prove themselves — if they are worthy of the job, are they doing a good job, they are always in competition with their counterparts. In such a scenario, when an incident occurs, the woman now has to prove that the incident really happened. And I think that is one reason why they don’t lodge a complaint or do much about the issue,” feels author Kiran Manral.
But can a woman’s silence be taken as approval? Tannishtha says, “We should not be silent, I have never been silent. It’s been years; I have that reputation that no one tries it on me. I have voiced my opinion personally. I have walked out of the situation.”
Hamsa Nandini
She, however, admits, “I don’t feel empowered enough to talk about it in public. I have heard some of the people I have worked with propositioning other actresses, and been shocked. In the film industry, we are lucky — if you don’t want to work with a certain director, you move on. But that isn’t the case in the corporate or academic set-up, where one can’t keep on switching jobs.”
Surprisingly, this is not confined to women alone. Men are often subjected to harassment, and many of them don’t come out or take any action. “What surprises me is the fact that sooner or later, women at least raise their voices and stand up against the system, men don’t even do that,” says Mahabano Mody-Kotwal, director, The Vagina Monologues, adding, “Imagine men being assaulted and harassed and never raising a voice against it because they will be at the risk of being emasculated and being called gay. The number of men in the industry against whom these crimes are committed is high. However, I think if two-three men and women come up and raise their voice against one perpetrator, it will help,” she says.
Tannishtha agrees and adds, “In the film industry, good-looking boys are subjected to such propositions, and it is unsafe for people who come in with talent. As Priyanka said, ‘it is not about sex, but about power’. Some people feel they are so powerful that they can get away with it. That’s the thing... they exert that power.”
—With inputs from Pooja Salvi
