We are seeing many posts and stories with #metoo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and most of social media apps. The recent and most talked about allegation on Nana Patekar by Tanushree Dutta gave rise to #metoo movement in Bollywood.
Let’s see the actual origin of this movement, how it started and where it has reached.
What is #metoo movement?
#metoo movement is basically a voice of women who have suffered from sexual assault, rape or any kind of physical harassment.
Women are bringing their bad experiences forward by making posts on social media with this hash tag: “#metoo”. Even if they have suffered decades ago, women are openly speaking about this nowadays.
All those women who have suffered from sexual harassment didn’t speak openly because of threat, fear of not being understood, fear of defamation or sometimes they were confused what to do in such situations.
How did #metoo start?
It was originally started in 2006 but came into light from 2017. On 16th October, 2017, an American actress Alyssa Milano tweeted about sexual harassment and encouraged women to open-up regarding the same if they too experienced something like this.
As a result of this, nearly 2 lakh tweets were made with #metoo on the same day when Alyssa tweeted and more than 5 lakh tweets were made by 17th October 2017. More than 47 lakh people mentioned #metoo in their 1.20 Cr posts on Facebook within the first 24 hours. Among the people who posted, 45% were Americans.
Harvey Weinstein – Film Producer
Many actresses and models raised voices in Hollywood and as a result Harvey Weinstein, who was among the top Hollywood film producer, was distant by industry. The moment then slowly spread in music industry, science, academics and politics. However, it cannot be said that every allegations are true but this hash tag has taken over the world by storm.
What happened in 2006?
America’s social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke first used #metoo on My Space. She highlighted about the sexual harassment which was made based on color. This came to her mind when a 13 year old girl told her that she was sexually harassed and she had no answer to tell her.
Tarana has confessed that she has been the victim of sexual assault for three times as she grew up. Her two words took the form of revolution in which all the victims around the world are coming up.
#metoo in India
#metoo in India actually started on 25th September 2018 when actress Tanushree Dutta confessed that she has been assaulted by Nana Patekar. She said that this happened with her in 2008 while she was shooting for the film “Horn OK Please”.
This was just the beginning and now many women have claimed to be victims of assaults and harassments against popular faces like Rajat Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Director Vikas Bahl, Comedian Utsav Chakravarti, Aditi Mittal, Sajid Khan, Chetan Bhagat, Alok Nath, Writer Varun Grover, Ex. Journalist MJ Akbar, Vinod Dua & many more names are coming up.
Let’s see where what turn this campaign will take. Well, the silence of PM Narendra Modi is also taken note of.