‘My voice was never stifled’
In the wake of recent sexual allegations against multiple actors and producers in Hollywood, actor Vidya Balan says that victim-shaming and - blaming needs to stop. Actors such as Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have come out and voiced their harassment stories about famed producer Harvey Weinstein. Defending the victims, some of who have spoken decades after the incident, Vidya says, “It’s pointless to say why are they speaking up now. In any case of sexual harassment, rape or molestation, if the victim takes longer to talk about it, it just means that the victim wasn’t comfortable enough. It doesn’t matter what you wear and what you do, it’s about the other person. And they should be named, blamed and shamed.”
While she says an issue of this magnitude is very much possible in any industry, she explains why it’s often so hard to talk about it. “Just imagine this situation. Hollywood actresses who are earning 20 million dollars a film have gone through this and kept quiet. If they feel uncomfortable talking about it, someone who is in a far less powerful position would feel that much more uncomfortable. Women are generally made to feel like they would be blamed for it. Because when a woman talks, you call her all sorts of names and say she is a troublemaker or that she wants publicity. It’s not easy to talk about it, so keeping quiet is the easier option because you deal with the demons in your head,” says the Tumhari Sulu actor.
In fact, she narrates an incident from childhood that she still remembers. “I remember as a child, I was plucking flowers under my building and some passerby pinched me in my inner thigh. I went inside and told my parents that this had happened and they ran outside to find him and he had obviously left by then. But I was given the liberty to talk to my parents about stuff like this. So many people, don’t have that liberty as well. I feel I was very lucky that I came from the environment that I did. My voice was never stifled and when I stepped out to work, it was never a question of survival for me. Whether or not, I got that opportunity, there would be food on my plate. These things also complicate situations. So for anyone who says what were they doing for long, I would say why don’t you ask yourselves if you’ve given them the space and made them comfortable to sayy it.” .