Two days back, a status popped on my FB’s homepage which read,
“Me too.
If all the people 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.
Please copy/paste.
#MeToo“.
This felt unlikely because the woman who shared this, is fierce to say the least, the independent, the “I will kick you at your balls” type. This could not have happened to her were my thoughts.
As I scrolled down, people; both men and women were posting about it, of how it happened, where it happened, who did it to them and how all this made them feel. I felt my heart sinking.
I wanted to write my own experience about that day in that bus but then we have all been there; the gestures, the groping, the dicks rubbed on shoulders, the hands on our hips or worse. So, this time, I decided to tell what I did about it.
I FOUGHT.
I got up from the seat after telling myself for twenty minutes that “HE WILL STOP”. He had no intentions to even after I warned him a dozen times,loudly, that he needs to stand straight!
It was I who needed to stand.
So I stood up and humiliated him publicly, in that private bus which was crowded and which fell silent as I poured my wrath onto him. I saw the fear in his eyes.
I FELT POWERFUL.
When I read the first “MeToo” post, I hesitated to put #MeToo on my status but truth is, me too was already a part of it.
I saw more women coming out and that gave me strength to join them. The first bold step was to speak up and these men and women were doing it. Kudos!
Earlier today, a friend also shared his view which goes,
“#MyView
There are a lot of men, young and old, who sit on the sidelines when their peers participate in the horror being talked about. These people knew it was wrong but had little guts to stop or do anything. Even worse, ran the risk of being ridiculed for being unmanly. I was.
I wish all of us guys the strength. The strength to speak up, not to women, but to each other. To hold each others collars and tell them to stop. To have the courage to walk away from the men we don’t want to become. Even if they are our fathers, brothers or friends.”
His words gave me more strength and further insight on how deep this monstrosity runs. But in the recent light of how both men and women came forward, shows that we are all vulnerable to it, irrespective of our country, state, location, job title or gender. But it gives me hope that we will stand for each other, for women and men both, and that we will fight!
Originally posted on Blogger on Oct 18, 2017