Over the past few days, women from all over the world have been using the ‘#MeToo hashtag, boldly telling their tales of sexual harassment. Our social feeds have been flooded with the brave tales of women surviving sexual abuse and rape.
However, many might not be aware that it has gone viral as a reaction to the Harvey Weinstein controversy.
The Hollywood producer has decades worth of sexual assault allegations, with many American actresses like Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow accusing him of harassment.
Women, worldwide have actively participated in the trend & the shocking numbers proved t how common sexual abuse is in our society.
BUT ALAS!
A top advertising executive in India found herself in hot water after jumping onto the #metoo bandwagon
Ogilvy & Mather India Managing Partner, Chandana Agarwal took to Facebook and dismissed sexual harassment as a “part of growing up.”
The Facebook status is now deleted but a screenshot of her message is spreading over the internet like wildfire.
Apparently, a popular Indian feminist and writer, Harnid Kaur received the screenshot and slammed Agarwal for her disturbing views.
She was not the only one!
The whole of social media was shocked that a female leader from an advertising agency as big as Ogilvy could post something so outrageous!
The aggressive backlash prompted Chandana Agarwal to apologize for her remarks, clarifying her stance on the matter of ‘sexual abuse’
— Chandana Agarwal (@0dc21330495d4b2) October 18, 2017
As Kaur pointed out, all forms of abuse are traumatic for the ones that are going through it. It is to be noted that there are many women today who still can’t gather the courage to report sexual harassment or talk about their tales of torture and rape.
At the end of the day, it is NOT okay to normalize any kind of abuse, in essentially the most twisted ways imaginable. Indeed, it takes a lot of strength for any woman to summon the courage and voice out even a minor form of violence.
Instead of shutting down women who were brave enough to speak about their experiences on social media, we should be more encouraging towards them.
