Being in the industry for about 10 yrs or 20 yrs, having started in newsrooms back then largely with boys, you have directly or indirectly met quite a few biggies and top guns, being named and shamed via #MeToo. The scope however goes beyond calling out names. Imagine the immense professional damage that such behavior causes on a woman’s career. You solicit or you exit or you make it very uncomfortable for yourself to bargain fair-play. You are somehow suddenly not good enough. But we must have to go back and think about how it all started? Let us face it while the discourse is on, why are we not talking of those so called fair enough womens, who have found it completely reasonable to solicit favours, gimmick of lust bondings or sleep with the bosses to get ahead in life and grab the desired power, paisa, position and passion in life? The sort of ladies who have stood up to be examples in newsrooms that, “Because I sleep with the editors or power punch personalities, I am the defacto-boss, and I call the shots?” Is this not damaging for other women’s to get to the top? What are we talking about? Careers and growth? What is #MeToo even about?
Is this not setting an example for how we have not worked with some of these news room ladies ourselves? Why do a single gender unity have the courage to speak out against some among us who have encouraged those men in the office to even believe that if a women is ambitious, she will deliver the goods? Another gender to say like this that she was so much passionate to grab the power and position and she has approached me for that. If an editor is calling you to a hotel room or in private place, it is only because he has been only sure to do this because you or some other have did the same and boosted him to an extent and due was next promotion on career growth. You would not have had to come to that stage of being approached by him for sex if the first woman stepped out or refused him or called him out or whatever then never been such incident happened, so ultimately it’s was a safe and appropriate act to make him habitual of it. If there are men who have crossed boundaries and abused power and position, I do understand, a lot of women too were also breaking professional boundaries, soliciting the advances and giving them what they wanted to get ahead of the race. By doing that it has been a bunch among our society or industry who have brought it all down for ourselves to begin with. That’s my take on #MeToo. Next time when you see a woman or a girl or such ill charactered colleague flirting a male boss to get cozy over coffee, meeting beyond work to gain access to undue power & position, hope one of us will start a new hashtag and call it #SheToo
Note: The views expressed above are solely that of the author’s.
