Why a look back at the ‘Me Too’ movement elicits mixed reactions in women

The line from writer-poet Isobel O’Hare’s 2017 ‘What We Know About Men’ reads like a confession of a predatory mind that has little regard for a woman’s opinions, emotions and identity. The collection of six ‘erasure poems’ blacked out portions of the public statements of men accused of sexual misconduct during the ‘#Me Too’ campaign, to leave fragments which, while deeply disturbing, could be an honest reveal of a social rot that allowed generational abuse of women. A 2017 article on ‘Read Poetry’, an online community that claims to be “a safe space to explore identity, diversity, and empowerment”, cites ‘What We Know Of Men’ as O’Hare’s refusal to “let remorse triumph over justice” and adds that the poet “quite literally shows that it’s possible for survivors and their allies to reclaim their narratives”.

The above fragment was from Harvey Weinstein’s statement — the former American film producer and now convicted sex offender, allegations against whom opened the floodgates of pent-up anguish of women from across the world who had silently carried the burden of similar alleged harassment by men. One by one, as the accounts continued to come in, it took shape of a movement and a sisterhood that announced support and solidarity with the slogan ‘#Me Too’.

Now, years later, many of those who had spoken up claim little has changed on the ground when it comes to harassment being faced by women, while they themselves continue to be viewed through the lens of ‘Me Too’.

More than a decade before the 2017 allegations against Weinstein, however, it was American activist Tarana Burke who came up with the phrase ‘me too’ in 2006, reportedly while talking to a survivor of sexual assault and abuse. The phrase has since been a part of her theory of “empowerment through empathy”. Which makes 2026, 20 years of ‘#Me Too’.

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In India, though, it was the Weinstein moment that made ‘#Me Too’ a part of the country’s narrative against sexual harassment of women. In the months following the growth of the movement in the US, women in India started opening up on social media platforms about their own experiences of alleged harassment. Some of the allegations were from recent times, others dated back years.

“The ‘MeToo’ movement provided a space outside the court space, the legal space, for women to come out and speak,” says senior advocate Rebecca John. “When they saw the solidarity of other women, in terms of other women speaking, they found the courage to speak out. So, it was like the floodgates opened up and people were able to use what they considered to be, at that time, a safe platform to speak without repercussions and without having to prove every allegation, which, as you know, is sometimes very difficult, because what is required in court is a kind of forensic proof which women obviously don't have, nor do they keep. So, I think to that extent, it was a kind of cathartic moment. They were able to come out, they were able to speak, they felt safe, they felt empowered, and more and more stories tumbled out. Looking back, it was a moment to be treasured.”

Delhi-based journalist Adrija Bose echoes John’s summing up of the movement being cathartic for many. Talking about what had prompted her to speak up, Bose, who had accused a fellow journalist and former friend of harassment, says, “I was carrying the weight of not speaking about it, even to my friends, for a very long time. When women started writing about their experiences and calling out men (some of them I knew, worked with) two things happened. A. I was angry. B. I wanted to share my story so that I could get rid of that burden.”

And so, the stories kept coming. Politics, entertainment, media, advertising, the corporate world…nothing escaped the outrage as names continued to be called out for alleged inappropriate conduct. It was like a hurricane, pushing through decades of uneasy silence, which had helped facilitate abuse; a flame that once set alight refused to be tamed. Those in public roles stepped down, producers and actors were dropped from films, senior professionals transferred or moved out, as the public naming and shaming forced accountability.

“At the time, I would often be asked by the media if it had happened to me, if I had faced harassment. I guess most women in public roles were being asked the question,” says actor Sruthi Hariharan, who had accused a fellow actor of misconduct. “And I found myself saying, ‘Yes, it has happened to me’. And then when they asked me, ‘would you talk about it’ or ‘would you ever have the courage to name the perpetrator’, I would say, ‘probably not’. Because I understood the adverse effects it could have or the consequences it could have on my life and career. But after a while, I felt it was hypocritical of me,” says the actor, who eventually spoke up and also filed a police complaint against the accused. (He was, however, given a clean chit, reportedly because of a lack of evidence).

Despite the outpourings of solidarity, the women faced a range of backlash. The most immediate of which, of course, was the defamation suits which some of them found themselves being served with by those they accused. Interestingly, some of those who spoke up claim it was the defamation suits that prompted them to seek legal action against their alleged perpetrators, something which they had not initially considered. “I'm not even sure whether the women were looking to prosecute or anything like that. They just felt the need to speak out. And then that became a complication because some of the men decided to take these women to court,” agrees John.

Careers were also purportedly impacted, with many of the women claiming to have been blacklisted by potential employers.

The movement was also not immune to censure.

While some accused it of lacking an internal mechanism for constructive criticism, thereby “weakening the cause”, others claimed it failed to differentiate between degrees of abuse and harassment, “painting a rapist, molester, or those who sent inappropriate messages with the same brush”.

There were also genuine concerns about the limits of the movement.

A BBC article dated February 2019 looked at how the ‘Me Too’ campaign in India had failed to touch “the lives of millions of poor, vulnerable women who work in informal jobs”.

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Close to a decade later, there is a fatigue in many of those who had been associated with the movement — the fatigue of being repeatedly asked to revisit the campaign and their statements, of being looked at through the ‘Me Too’ lens, and of “little having changed” on the ground in terms of harassment being faced by women. It is as if life has paused for some of them, with the campaign continuing to define their lives.

Many of the women who had spoken up or shared their experiences at the peak of the campaign in 2018 declined to talk when The Federal approached them for this article; one frankly admitted that she was tired of being asked to talk about the ‘Me Too’ movement every Women’s Day, questioning why the media did not approach the men who were accused on what has changed in the years since.

“Initially, it was good. But in the long run, the ‘Me Too’ movement has backfired on the women,” says Nasreen Khan, a former journalist and now lawyer in Kolkata, who had accused a former senior in one of her jobs as a journalist of misconduct. (The accused, who had also been named by others, had denied all allegations).

While Khan maintains that she did not regret speaking up, she claims she has become the butt of ridicule and that the knowledge of her being associated with the campaign has trickled down even to her legal colleagues. “It's the women who are having difficulty working, finding jobs or being able to live with dignity. Because the tragedy is that many people believe that the women who complained actually had something going on with the bosses and when that didn't work out, they turned against them,” claims Khan.

Her concern about the long-term attitude towards the women who spoke up is shared by a 47-year-old Delhi-based journalist who had accused a senior editor (not Delhi-based) of misconduct during a meeting years ago.

“It was [often] the women who stood up for themselves or other women who were left without jobs,” she says, adding, “The only tangible benefit I can see is that it has acted as a deterrent among men who otherwise exhibited predatory traits. POSH [Prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace] committees in organisations — a major outcome of the ‘Me Too’ movement [though the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, already mandated it] — instilled some sense in men that they can't get away with anything. Now I see men apologise when they realise they said something that was politically incorrect.”

While for Bose, speaking up, she says, helped her personally, something she “needed to do for myself”, the impact of the movement has been mixed. “I don't quite know what has changed since. Do women get harassed? Yes. Do they get harassed at their workplaces? Yes. But perhaps women feel a little more comfortable sharing their truth now, and perhaps men co-workers/bosses think a little before saying/doing something that they know is clear sexual harassment.”

This sliver of positivity is what many would want to hold on to; not just those who had alleged harassment, but even activists and social observers, while studying the role of the ‘Me Too’ movement in the country’s narrative against harassment and abuse of women.

“Awareness has grown. Many more women are talking about it today, they are complaining and saying no to any form of advances or harassment,” says Ranjana Kumari, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research. “There have also been a lot of systemic reforms,” she adds.

Agrees Hariharan. “The first thing that I think the ‘MeToo’ movement did try to do was not just do the blame game, but also fight an entire system that has existed for so long. Secondly, I think a lot has changed institutionally. Legal frameworks have changed within film industries, where ICs [internal committees] have become part of conversations; they've become mandatory. Film unions have started being more cognisant about such issues. There is this amount of fear that has been instilled in men, which is great.”

She adds: “More importantly, it shifted the power dynamics within women. There is so much solidarity among women; the whole conversation of women for women is so much more powerful. And I also feel discussions surrounding consent, power, and boundaries are happening more.”

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Having said that, however, Hariharan admits that today she continues to be the “Me Too girl”, but insists it's an identity she wears “with pride”.

“In the past, employers, while hiring women, would express concern that she would marry and drop out of the system. So, what’s the point in investing in her? Now women face an additional burden. ‘Would she make a complaint [of sexual harassment], mess up the atmosphere inside the organisation?’ And so, regardless of how good she is, this becomes an issue,” says John.

For women who spoke up during the campaign, the other depressing thing, according to the senior advocate, “is the rehabilitation of many of the accused men”.

Meanwhile, Kumari rues that despite the support from women’s organisations and intellectual bodies, the movement could not be sustained beyond a point, an outcome she blames partially on the lack of support from “judicial institutions” and “the way the whole legal process went on”.

One of the other five sections of O’Hare’s ‘What We Know About Men’ reads, “There are stories out there about me/that/have/been fuelled by/my own/behaviour”. A third states, “I/ignored/reality/for eons”.

The latter statement could be true both of the men who for generations felt entitled to treat women as objects of pleasure, along with the society that indulged that belief, and the women who remained silent subjects of abuse.

While the pros and cons of the ‘#Me Too’ movement will probably continue to be debated down the years, or at least given a perfunctory revisit annually on ‘International Women’s Day’, there will be no denying that it forced both men and women to sit up and stop ‘ignoring reality’.