Shah Rukh Khan recently spoke up against the sexual harassment faced by women. He also pointed out that women standing up against sexual misconduct is long overdue. SRK extended his support to the cause and in an interview, with Business Insider, said, “We should not just let it be about ‘Oh this man behaved like this’ and ‘This is so shocking,’ or all of that, but we should respect the emotion of the women taking such a strong step in coming out, and being so brave, and help stop this from happening in our individual industries.”After accusations of misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein started surfacing in October, #metoo trended all over social media. Many women spoke up on the issue and shared their stories that further encouraged others to come out in the open and voice it.
However, even before the Weinstein scandal, there were many instances of Bollywood actresses talking about sexual harassment. Once, in an interview with Indian Express, Kangana Ranaut had spoke about the same. She had said, “I got harassed and I know a lot of people who got harassed. Sometimes you don’t have that liberty to put your career at stake. Why would you say, ‘Why now? Are you out of job? You didn’t scream at that time. Where’s the photo? Where’s the video?’ I should be allowed to talk about (sexual harassment) even from my death bed.” Even Akshay Kumar, in an interview with Business Insider, had said, “It’s just that when (sexual misconduct) happens in Hollywood, it comes out so big.” He added, “Everybody knows about it, but it’s everywhere.” Also Read: Rs 2.36 Lakh! Only if we could afford it, we would have not blinked twice before buying Kangana Ranaut’s outfit
Twinkle Khanna also extended her support to women expressing distress and said that women speaking up about sexual misconduct is overdue. She had said to Business Insider, “It’s an outreach that’s been suppressed for very long. Women are tired of being grabbed and groped. Women are tired of bending over backwards to get ahead in the workforce, bending over backwards to the point where sometimes they have to lie horizontal in order to go forward.” She is more hopeful that with the change of time women will stand up more. She said to the same, “But I think that times are changing, it’s wonderful that women are standing up for something that’s been going on for a long time, and hopefully, within a generation, we will come closer to this equality we’re trying to achieve.”
Stories from different celebrities are starting to trickle out. News of Reena Saini, Swara Bhaskar coming up with a protest against the instances of sexual harassment they faced are remarkable and motivating. They do encourage others to come up and protest against the harassment they face.