{"id":3536,"date":"2016-05-23T14:22:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T08:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2016-05-23T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T08:52:55","slug":"why-women-like-tavleen-singh-choose-not-to-be-a-part-of-metoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3536","title":{"rendered":"Why Women Like Tavleen Singh Choose Not to be a Part of #MeToo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p><\/div>

n the past three weeks, <\/span>India\u2019s #MeToo movemen<\/span><\/a>t has sparked a new-found sisterhood among women in the country. Buoyed by the unwavering solidarity and the promise that the voices of survivors will not be stifled, women have come together to challenge powerful predators such as <\/span>MJ Akbar<\/span><\/a>, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, and Anu Malik. Those who have not stepped into the ring, have cheered from the sidelines. <\/span>\n\nExcept this backing hasn\u2019t been unanimous. <\/span>\n\nVeteran journalists Tavleen Singh, Manjeet Kripalani, and Seema Mustafa are outliers. Publicly criticising the movement, they have labelled it \u201c<\/span>elitist<\/span><\/a>,\u201d even blaming victims for putting themselves in situations that have led to their <\/span>harassment<\/span><\/a>. Interestingly, these women have been infinitely kinder to the men \u2013 worrying about their fate and wringing their hands over how many brilliant legacies have been tarnished by #MeToo.<\/span>\n\nLopsided as these responses might be, they aren\u2019t surprising or new. We are, after all, byproducts of a culture that has allowed men to abuse their power with impunity. But what is disconcerting, is to see this kind of opposition from women journalists \u2013 at the prime of their reputation, power, and <\/span>privilege<\/span><\/a> \u2013 who have fought tooth-and-nail to establish their careers in male-dominated newsrooms. It\u2019s a peculiarity that even Barkha Dutt felt compelled to point out in her <\/span>video<\/span><\/a> letter to the trio: Dutt reminds them that the right to work is not \u201celitist\u201d, but a fundamental tenet of <\/span>feminism<\/span><\/a>, condemning the victim-blaming perpetuated by them. Her unequivocal stance remains that the success of All India Bakchod, Suhel Seth, and MJ AKbar, doesn\u2019t absolve them of their alleged crimes. <\/span>\n\nYet her rational plea was met with an open <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> by Tavleen Singh that only doubled down on the victim-blaming. Like her casual dismissal of #MeToo, Singh\u2019s interpretations of victimhood remained unchanged. \u201cMy generation of women fought for our place in the workplace \u2013 as your mother did a little before us \u2013 not by being victims but by being fighters. Rights are not usually given to <\/span>victims<\/span><\/a> but those who fight for them,\u201d she claimed. She goes on to ask why a woman who accused Suhel Seth of sexual assault did not immediately give him a \u201ckick in the right place\u201d, and why Akbar\u2019s accusers did not collectively complain to the owner of <\/span>Asian Age<\/span><\/i>. This, despite several women admitting that they couldn\u2019t risk their jobs and careers, that they froze, or that they reported their stories in vain. <\/span>\n\nBut here\u2019s probably why Singh mistook the \u201cdelayed\u201d speaking out of survivors as their weakness. Like Kripalani, Mustafa, and indeed, Dutt herself, Singh hails from the kind of wealth and power that a majority of women can only dream of. Her family lives in the upscale Lutyens\u2019 Delhi, and her residence overlooks Mumbai\u2019s Marine Drive \u2013 two of the most expensive and exclusive neighbourhoods in the country. After over 40 years as a journalist, Singh now commands enormous respect, writing editorials for a variety of publications. If she were to kick Suhel Seth in the balls, her bubble of privilege would guarantee that she would, in all likelihood, not be out of a job, in danger of losing the gilded roof over her head, or be an outcast in journalism. It\u2019s why her response makes sense to her, but not to the hundreds of women, negotiating everyday power hierarchies.<\/span>\n\nAnd yet, without any sense of irony, Singh reduces #MeToo to a bunch of well-heeled urban women complaining over a \u201cbit of <\/span>workplace harassment<\/span><\/a>\u201d or taking revenge for some bad dates. She even trivialises their trauma by comparing them to the \u201ctruly vulnerable\u201d rural women in India, who face far greater obstacles and even fewer avenues for redressal. It\u2019s this zero-sum mentality that precisely illustrates the misplaced views of many women, who carelessly reject the idea of their seemingly empowered counterparts, demanding further empowerment. Women who are conditioned to respond to inequality only when the weaker sections are at the receiving end. <\/span>\n\n

Like Kriplani, Mustafa, and indeed, Dutt herself, Singh hails from the kind of wealth and power that a majority of women can only dream of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nProbably Singh and her ilk do not realise that it\u2019s their privilege that has helped them rise above the rampant sexism that held back so many of their peers and which continues to be an obstacle for younger women. It has allowed them to \u2013 at least on some level \u2013 play on their own terms. In fact, their set of <\/span>struggles<\/span><\/a> may have never included the struggles that women without money and family legacy have had to face. It\u2019s no wonder then that they are unable to comprehend how strength and injustice can coexist for liberal women at workplaces. After all, isn\u2019t it an oxymoron to be a liberated woman and still cry for equality? <\/span>\n\nBut what a lot of older women don\u2019t get is that unlike the women of their generation, equality for today\u2019s women, is no longer a black and white narrative, between empowerment and weakness, victimhood and culpability. Even as Singh insists that today\u2019s women should fight for their rights, she rejects their modes of doing so. As for her claim that rights are not usually given to victims, #MeToo has already begun to change the traditional culture of silence. It has already challenged the regressive idea that rights are to be doled out, first to the privileged, rather than being inviolable for all. And, above all, it refuses to accept that women should have to deal with harassment, rather than expecting better from powerful men. Perhaps it\u2019s time we expected better from <\/span>powerful women<\/span><\/a>, too. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalist Tavleen Singh has reduced #MeToo to a bunch of well-heeled urban women complaining over a bit of workplace harassment. But it is actually Singh and her ilk\u2019s privilege that has helped them rise above the rampant sexism, which held back so many of their peers. That continues to be an obstacle for younger women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":3537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[2588,1175,710,6692,463,6693,6641,675,6694,6695,6696,3794,6531,6540],"class_list":["post-3536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-metoo","tag-barkha-dutt","tag-feminism","tag-indian-express","tag-journalism","tag-manjeet-kripalani","tag-mj-akbar","tag-rape-culture","tag-seema-mustafa","tag-suhel-seth","tag-tavleen-singh","tag-the-print","tag-victim-blaming","tag-workplace-harassment"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Women Like Tavleen Singh Choose Not to be a Part of #MeToo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Journalist Tavleen Singh has reduced #MeToo to a bunch of well-heeled urban women complaining over a bit of workplace harassment. 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