What’s the difference between a sexual harassment scandal tainted institution and a squeaky clean one? The latter is simply one where affected women haven’t mustered the necessary courage to report harassment yet. As a society, we are like this batch of piranha eggs, just waiting to hatch sex scandals which will then go on to hungrily consume celebrities and administrators, TV time and our attention.
As a friend of mine (@cgawker) once said (on Twitter) — if there’s one thing that all religions agree on, it’s that women should be given a hard time. At a surface level, it’s easy to point at Islam, decry their insistence on veils and declare them the worst offenders. But that’s simply a case of the bank robber calling the serial killer immoral. Most social mores, having been shaped by distinctly male-centric faiths have two extreme views — a woman must either be respected and protected (provided she complies with the rules) because she is a vehicle of reproduction (and therefore must be parked in a safe garage and not driven anywhere) OR declared immoral, arrogant and harassed/honour-killed/beaten etc.
Sadly, most of the people in power in India (both in private and public institutions) come from family backgrounds that make this distinction — Men work, women stay at home and factory-produce children, patently clear. A child growing up in India realises very early on that these non-negotiable roles are enforced with a rod that comes with the brand name “Indian culture”. So it’s hardly surprising that most male managers can never view women as their equals. They can never have a civil debate at work. If the woman disagrees and is defiant, the men will pity her husband. Male eyes get trained to look at women co-workers as potential wives, not as peers in professional society. If she seems docile, they will ask her to drop her pants. If she isn’t, oh well, harass her anyway and fire her ass for incompetence.
Once the male child grows up to be a teenager, that’s when he enters the Great Indian Sexually Dysfunctional Adolescence. Most boys in India grow up knowing just one girl till the point they get married — their right hand. A combination of medieval school and college segregation rules ensure that the male lack of sensitivity to the other gender is now sharpened like a Samurai sword, waiting to come down on the necks of a generation of women trying very hard as it is to compete as peers in the workforce.
An interesting indicator of male society’s maturity in “dealing” with women is the status of pornography. In Scandinavian societies for instance, porn is not mainstream. It’s on the fringes and mostly serves a niche clientele of lonely men and horny teenagers. The objectification of women is an occasional fantasy and the porn industry caters to that. Contrast that with India. A vast majority of mainstream Bollywood (and every other ‘wood) movies are essentially pornography with clothes on. The formula is simple. Noble action heroes deal with nubile heroines who are initially defiant but are eventually conquered. The number of movies with strong, asexual female roles is about as small as the minds of administrators who ask for sexual favours from sportswomen.
