What Has The Metoo Movement Changed?

#MeToo might be the world changing movement that revealed how the world is lagging behindin gender equality, but this kind of women’s movement could have been expected for a while, aschange is often set in motion by an unprivileged social group gaining both knowledge and ahigherpositioninthesociety.

India has a democratic Constitution, but the cultural ethos has been shaped by an ideology thatdivides society into hierarchies and denudes multitudes of temporal and spiritual power.Sustained gender equality calls for uprooting this ideology. Women’s equality is intimately tiedup with ending caste inequality, meaning removal of caste itself.A social structure and attendant cultural norms that see kidnapping and raping lower-caste girlsas the natural privilege of upper-caste men will constantly feed predatory entitlement in everystratum of society. The short point is that radically altering gender balance at the work place callsfor overall democratisation of society and empowerment of those disempowered at present.

Decades ago, women were encouraged to remain in the background, down to how they sat in public. Now, there are more women in higher education and delving into traditionallymale-dominated fields. Men still objectify women but fewer men voice those thoughts. Social media helps to perpetuate this objectification because of the anonymity.

The very fact that the #MeToo Movement is turning out to be one of the most impactfulanti-sexual harassment movement shows that India is slowly working towards creating an environment where survivors are assured of justice for the harassment and assaults that they are subjected to. Although #MeToo has not yet featured many male victims of sexual abuse, it is fair to imagine an expansive scale of such abuses, trying not to desensitize its magnitude just becausethere is no record. The country very recently decriminalized queer sexual-relationships,thereforeuntil now anything pertaining to LGBTQ individuals didn’t reach the concerned authorities for complaint, very likely due to the lack of a mechanism to seek redressal. Sexual assault is a paradigm of oppression that requires much more than a compressed piece of literature. Thatbeing said, there are various solutions to overcome every hurdle and make sure that suchsurvivors get the justice they deserve. For a lot of survivors, just being heard, listened to and bebelieved could be empowering and that could be all they ask for.

So, yes , I do believe that the #metoo movement has played a pivotal role in ignitingthe fire amongst the masses and changing the gender relations.. Both Men and Womenare coming out in the open, standing side by side with the victims. The victims havegarnered the strength to come out in the open and speak about their trauma. India , as acountry, due to its prevailing distinction on various fronts, still needs a long way to gowhen we talk about the men and women of the society. But , nevertheless , a start isalways welcomed and we as the next generation need to make sure that the fire remains burning.