The #MeToo movement in India has taken a storm after Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutt accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleasss in 2008.
More and more women stepping up and sharing their horrifying experiences.
Now, actress Swara Bhaskar has revealed she was sexually harassed by a director but it took her nearly six to eight years to realize what had happened as the culture doesn’t teach women to recognize predatory behaviour. Swara, without taking any names, said the harassment happened at workplace and the director was being “predatory.” “It took me 6-8 years to realize when I heard someone else talk about their experience of harassment at a panel discussion like this. I was like God, what happened to me 3 years ago was actually sexual harassment at work place! I never realized it because like you said, I escaped. Because the person did not touch me and I managed to ward it off,” Swara said.
Swara Bhaskar reveals
“I would just tell myself that this director is being… whatever, but that is not the full truth. The director was not being an idiot or an ass, he was being a predator,” she added.
The actress further revealed that she wasn’t able to recognise that pattern or behaviour because as our culture doesn’t teach that. She said, “We do not teach our girl children to recognise predatory behaviour for what it is. There is so much of culture of silence, around sexuality in India, around the issue of sexual harassment, actually not just In India, everywhere around the world that we are just going through are lives without recognising it properly. We just recognise the discomfort.”
She further added, “It is really sad, because then slowly I began to realise that I am just not recognising it. Because we are so endured to handle and manage things. Since childhood, if anything happens there is no one to tell you that this is sexual harassment. “
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She concluded saying, “First of these things is completely inhospitable and hostile society and a culture that actively or sub-consciously enables predators… We should use this moment to not just talk about the one predator that got caught and got glamourised. But we should also talk about the culture that enables these predators to reach the position of power they do. So, it’s also a question of making ourselves aware of many things that go into legitimising predatory behaviour.”