Lately, Western media is deluged with abundant cases of harassment of women at the workplace. Several prominent public personalities have come under scrutiny, speculation, and fire. If it would have been the one-off case, I would have been uninterested, howsoever glaring it would have been. To me, this is a social phenomenon, an event in Western Social and Professional life, where women are rebelling and demanding a courteous and dignified behavior.
This is possibly a watershed event since this has engulfed almost the entire western world with stories of the promiscuous proposition by men of influence, be it George Bush senior, Weinstein, Charlie Rose or Donald Trump. One thing is clear, the limits and threshold of tolerance of such behavior are marginalized.
It is obviously an important step if we need to enable and empower women. However, sometimes, especially in the case of Harvey Weinstein, I feel that the lesser gender submitted willfully and now, are calling it an inappropriate act of transgression of modesty. Especially the movie industry is abuzz with such congenial and complementary exploitation, wherein one gives and the other takes as a transaction to achieve professional goals. The truth is somewhere in between, how much on which side, is truly understandable only after knowing complex emotions that dominate women.
At least, that revolt, that rebel that exposure of misdeed is possible in Western World. Back in Asia or other parts of the world, where masochism and patriarchy dominants, it will take decades to unravel such a phenomenon.
References:
Charlie Rose suspended following sexual harassment allegations
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42060961
mymilieu.org 