Ever since the Me Too Movement started, I have alluded to it with one of my favourite stories – Monkey’s Paw. Most of you would have read the story. For those who have not, the brief story is as follows:
The story revolves around a couple, Mr. and Mrs. White, who have almost everything an average couple would have. They are introduced to a mummified Monkey’s Paw who can grant three wishes but with hellish consequences. They are warned to get rid of the paw, but despite the warnings of the hellish consequences, Mr White wishes for an amount to make the final mortgage payment on their house. The next day, their son dies in an accident, and the couple gets the same amount to enable them to make the final mortgage payment on their house. Subsequently, Mrs. White wishes the son to be brought back from death, and on seeing the mutilated face and ghostly features of the son from the window, Mr. White makes a final wish that he remains dead.
The story warns us against unbridled greed. It also tells us to realize what is most important in life. It questions our moral values. In the story, the Whites had a pretty everyday life that bordered on good. They had all their basic needs met. They just had a little mortgage left on the house, but wanting to pre-pone the repayment, they lost their son. When they wished for money or, subsequently, the life back in their dead son, they had no clue of the nightmares that awaited them. Their old age is filled with uncertainty as they lose the only earning member of the family. Akin to killing the goose that lays golden eggs in the greed to have more, but with even more horrific consequences.
They were now coming to the whole #MeToo movement and the hellish consequences it would have for the femdom. The feminist movement started as a revolution for equality. However, as every revolution tends to descend into tyranny, feminism became a movement for female dominance. Forgotten were the laws of equality, fair chance and equal responsibilities. Feminazies started asking for compensation for deeds done by our ancestors and wanted the current generation of men to be tried for those atrocities committed by them. They were trying to bring the dead back to resurrection. The consequences can only be harmful. At the beginning of December 2018, I was in Bangalore, where I visited a couple of my old friends, my mentor and a few other renowned professionals. As they knew I work for men’s rights, #M and eToo also cropped up in our conversations.
The fear was palpable. One of the top executives I met in Bangalore swore that he wouldn’t hire any female employees anymore but is frightened of how to sack the existing ones. Another friend, who is 5-6 years senior me and was a staunch promoter of feminism and female equality till I met him a couple of years back, was grief-stricken as one of his close friends was facing inquiry under POSH. With choicest expletives, he went on a long tirade against feminists, whereas my mentor was dismissive of the complete movement as that of fox saying grapes are sour.
I was reminded of a presentation I had given to one of the market associations in Delhi about the Prevention of Women from Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. The whole body unanimously said that if such laws exist and can be misused, it is better not to hire women.
Then, there was this report from the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg very mildly put the same in four basic tenants or strategies by Wall Street for making “life even harder for women”:
- No dinners with female colleagues.
- Don’t sit next to them on flights
- Book hotel rooms on different floors
- Avoid one to one meetings
However, women’s challenges are much more profound than men’s cosmetic steps to avoid being caught in the #MeToo wave. Bloomberg rightly quoted in the end, and I am reproducing the same verbatim here:
In this charged environment, the question is how the response to #MeToo might end up hurting women’s progress. Given the male dominance in Wall Street’s top jobs, one of the most pressing consequences for women is the loss of male mentors who can help them climb the ladder.
“There aren’t enough women in senior positions to bring along the next generation all by themselves,” said Lisa Kaufman, chief executive officer of LaSalle Securities. “Advancement typically requires that someone at a senior level knows your work, gives you opportunities and is willing to champion you within the firm. It’s hard for a relationship like that to develop if the senior person is unwilling to spend one-on-one time with a more junior person.”
The article concludes that Wall Street will soon become an all-men’s club again.
#MeToo started as a movement against female harassment. But public naming and shaming, which has curtailed many careers in India and abroad and more so when these women use shoot-and-scoot strategies and back out from lodging a formal complaint, has brought the spell of Monkey’s Paw on the whole feminist movement.
A few things happened in the last couple of months, which could put things in a better perspective. Shruti Hariharan, a South Indian movie star, lamented that the offers for work have dried up since she tagged someone in #MeToo.
On the other hand, Sonu Nigam exonerated his peer Anu Malik, asking for proof. On his own, Anu Malik ventured into the Marathi Music Industry, showing that offers to him have not dried up despite being named in the #MeToo charade. A Genpact employee committed suicide, and the lady in question and the whole ICC possibly would face a probe as to why he was suspended from his job pending inquiry, despite the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act not warranting any such action. Ten years after the incident, Tanushree Dutta, who was on holiday in India, is back in the USA after filing a police complaint.
A whole political party is backing Nana Patekar in his fightback. Today, Bloomberg Quint quoted that most highly paid executives who faced #MeToo accusations are back at work. Things are changing in the political arena, too. Farooq Abdullah had to eat crow for stating that he is scared to hire female secretaries, but now Trump openly says that #MeToo makes him fear more for his sons than his daughters. Back home, Manohar Lal Khattar, in a public rally, tore into rape allegations stating that most of them are false.
Two members of Parliament attended a seminar for the National Commission for Men in Delhi, and these men are no longer backing down from their stated position. The proverbial hellish consequence of the loose-cannon accusations on which the feminists are gloating would translate into fewer opportunities for women in workplaces. So when there won’t be any females in the workplace, there won’t be any sexual harassment of women.
And where would all these educated women go? They would have to work in unorganized sectors where even less protection is provided by law. Where the men are not so renowned that they fear a media backlash and where these women would have to face much more mortifying experience than a glare or two against whom they have any recourse. It is no secret that there is no shortage of failed or out-of-work actresses working in the sex trade.
Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act provides equal punishment for false complaints. The movement is ready to get the same repealed, and if that happens, it would be the final nail in the coffin for jobs for women in any organized sector. It would be the resurrection of the dead son of Whites in the story, and the feminists may have to demand a recall of legislation ultimately to bring women back into jobs.
It is for intelligent women to rise and caution women against using the #MeToo spell as a vendetta tool and a means to settle personal scores.
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