Stugazine

You are not alone; break the silence and Join the movement.

It is a viral movement started out in 2017 when a Hollywood art-ist came forward in twitter with an allegation of sexual harassment against a producer and she thereafter encouraged others to come up with their stories, but the origin of the movement started way back in 2006 by an American activist. The movement soon turned into a global outrage.

The stories are heart wrenching to hear. It is extremely important to understand fully that sexual harass-ment does not see any race, gender or social construct. This movement gave innumerable people the courage to speak up against it at workplaces, streets, colleges, schools and even at their own homes. This movement mainly provided a platform for men and women to come up with their unfortunate incidents and also for the society to let the victims know that they are not alone in this. The #metoo campaign helped to stir a national and world level conversation on this topic and most importantly to provide healing and closure to the victims.

For far too long the world has left the grave issue of sexual harassment and assault unnoticed or unspo-ken. This was probably because of the fear of victim shaming that followed. It is high time that the ta-boo is broken. The victims need not feel like their whole world is falling apart. The prevalence of sexual abuse in our society is staggering. Several studies reveal that one in four girls and one in seven boys are sexually abused before the age of 18 years.

All this lead to question ourselves – what has happened to us? Where have we gone wrong? There is a se-rious need to give awareness to the society on how to deal with this problem.

We can take an active role in increasing our own safety or the safety of those whom we care about. For a start, conversations regarding sexual assault can be a part of awareness about knowing when to speak up, how to take care of others, and about listening to your gut.

Of course, there‘s no way to eliminate the chance that something may happen, there are strategies that may reduce the risk or give us the confidence to step in or react against a sexual assault. We can also make sure any person responsible for such heinous acts do not get away scot free. At the same time, we should also see to it that no innocent person is dragged into this just to satisfy a person‘s selfish motives. This is very essential – as a number of people have begun misusing this tag leading to it not serving the very purpose this movement came around for. It is the need of the hour to give proper sex education in schools to avoid improper fascination in the body of the opposite gender in the young and naive minds. It is of utmost importance that we teach people to see all living beings with compas-sion and empathy. It seems, as though with this movement we are all one step closer to realizing all the wrong happening in the world, starting with this.

This is not just a woman issue. It is a human issue. If women find the retribution to speak up, men will follow. It is the shame and secrecy that emboldens the perpetrators. It is extremely important that we stand in solidarity with the victim.

It has become a social disease that has to be taken and destroyed right from the root. It is highly important that we pave the way for our future generations to live in an era where #metoohashtag is completely erad-icated from our social systems and is remembered only as a dreadful phase from our past.