10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents

Subscription ⁞ News Letter ⁞ Fair Use ⁞ Disclaimer ⁞ Submission ⁞ Contact ⁞ About ⁞     

Home ⁞ World ⁞ India ⁞ Climate Change ⁞ Globalisation ⁞ Patriarchy ⁞ Human Rights ⁞ Life/Philosophy ⁞

There are no breaking news at the moment

Site Search
Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual
Harassment And “Due Process” Site search...

in Patriarchy — by Prem Kumar Vijayan — October 28, 2017 Search

There has been much sound and fury on social media recently, about the posting of a list of alleged
sexual harassers in the Indian academe, on Facebook. Much of this has centred around the question
of “due process”, and the importance of observing this. Before discussing this, I want to draw
attention to another related point of profound importance, that has so far has been noted by only a
few observers – for instance, Ratna Raman’s article in Hardnews1, and Karen Gabriel’s post on
Facebook2. This is the importance of involving men in the battle against sexual harassment, not by
rushing to their rescue, citing the failure of due process, but by insisting that they too engage
Join Our News Letter
increasingly, openly, accountably, and responsibly with this problem. Men, while responding to sexual
harassment (whether general instances or speci c allegations against themselves), need to bear in
mind that men are the perpetrators in the overwhelming majority of cases of sexual harassment, and Name:
women and children are overwhelmingly the victims. A female student of mine, in the course of a
discussion on “terrorism”, observed tartly that the “war on terror” ought to begin at the level of E-mail:
gender relations, because the vast majority of women live in a reign of implicit, unacknowledged
terrorism – a condition so persistent and perpetual that, most women expect to suffer intimidation, Subscribe Unsubscribe
terror and violation, at any moment in their lives. How much they expect these, and to what extent
they suffer them, may vary signi cantly; but both the expectation and the suffering are almost
ubiquitous. If this is true, then men need to acknowledge this, and to acknowledge that they may not
even know that they may be creating, perpetrating and perpetuating such “sexual terrorism” and Latest Popular Comments Tags

“gender-based terrorism”, to whatever extent they may be doing so. They need to accept that they
may not even be able to gauge for themselves the extent to which they may be doing so; and that the The Balfour Declaration
fundamental reason for not being able to do so is that they mostly DO NOT LISTEN to women – not Planted Terror In The Middle
really. They don’t listen to women because they generally don’t take them seriously; they don’t take East! - Dr Salim Nazzal
them seriously because they mostly patronize, if not infantalize, them; and they infantalize them
mostly because, well, they simply can – literally, physically, often violently – even if they don’t always How Israel Forces Confessions
actually exercise that capability – along with the fact that most patriarchal cultures insist that women From Jerusalem Boys -

must marry men older than themselves. This chain of logic reveals an unpleasant truth: that even Maureen Clare Murphy

men who may not be harassers and violators themselves, are deeply complicit in the harassment and
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar As
violence committed by other men – by not listening to women; by ignoring, or even af rming, other
‘Mediator’ In Ayodhya Mosque
men’s violence; by practising forms of routine discrimination which may not be explicitly violent; by
Demolition Case! Congress
ignoring such sexism – any sexism, all sexism – by other men; by trivializing, mocking or even
Once Again Falls Into The Hindutva Trap -
dismissing, women’s protests about being discriminated against, exploited, abused, violated,
Shamsul Islam
brutalized, etc. Men need to acknowledge this unpleasant fact, of this near-universal homosocial
bond of complicity (that Karen Gabriel has theorized so extensively and nely in
Naming And Shaming: Men,
her book on cinema3); as well as the fact that this complicity is the foundation, the condition of Sexual Harassment And “Due
possibility, of the actual violence committed by (some of) them. Men need to accept that they Process” - Prem Kumar Vijayan
participate in, even cherish, this homosociality of complicity, often as a means to avoid intimacy with
women; and that they avoid intimacy with women because that road leads straight to empathy with Rohingyas: A Photo Essay From

them – to the realization that women are not just objects but subjects, with subjectivities and (the A Refugee Camp In Bangladesh

right to and capacity for) agency, and hence to the realization of their being treated unjustly, - Abu Ala Hasan

humiliatingly, etc. Men need to understand that, without such a realization, the very genuine
An Ordinary Life Enslaved By A
emotions of affection, care, love, desire that they feel towards the women in their lives, often get
Card:  Coercively Linking
structured as subject-object relations, rather than subject-subject ones – i.e., they are structured
Aadhaar With Hunger Is No
and articulated in terms of possession, ownership, protection, control and dominance, with all the
Solution - Adv Dr Shalu Nigam
attendant violence that those entail, rather than in terms of a mutuality in which women too have the
possibility, the space, the right, to articulate their own emotions, feelings, opinions, to have those
respected and to be respected for that. Men (and perhaps women too) therefore need to accept that

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 1/6
10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents
they have to restructure the dynamics of desire, from desire as dominance, etc, to desire as mutual, Bank O cers Body Files PIL Against Aadhaar
etc.. They need to come to terms with the fact that this may well prove dif cult, frightening, Linkage - Press Release
anguishing – after all, it requires letting go of the idea, the feeling, that desire is power, it requires the
relinquishing of control, and perhaps most importantly, it requires breaking away from the
homosociality of complicity. They need to overcome the powerful representation of this letting go,
this relinquishing, as impotence, in those homosocial discourses, and the consequent and
Rede ning Pain - Anitha S
completely irrational experiencing of these as disempowerment; they should not, cannot, (continue
to) allow this faux sense of impotence to be a reason, excuse or justi cation to avoid undertaking this
monumentally important task of restructuring gender relations and the dynamics of desire. And
women too must be involved in this task – both, by giving men the space to explore forms of desire The Seamless Web Of Life VS.
that are more mutual; as well as speaking out, if necessary outside of “due process”, to ensure that Greed - Sally Dugman
such explorations don’t just become another form of sexual predatoriness. Both men and women
need to realize that this is new terrain, without historical precedence: a country whose language and
Pain - K P Sasi
customs and terms of citizenry are still taking shape, and gaining in vocabulary, grammar, rules,
possibilities, as more and more people participate in it, with greater and greater mutuality, regard
and respect. Both men and women need to also realize that this molecular level re-structuring of
social relations is not disconnected from, independent of, the structures and dynamics of other kinds Inspiring Stories: Why Is
of social relations – caste, class, race, age, region, religion, etc – which are themselves often Hearing Important? - Shubhda
enormously unequal, exploitative, oppressive, etc. To give an old saying a new spin, injustice in any of Chaudhary
these is effectively (a justi cation for) injustice in all of these. Which means that the problem of
sexual harassment has to be tackled as much on a case to case basis, as on a much, much larger Granting Palestinians The Right

scale, where it draws its legitimacy and power from other forms of social violence and injustice. The To Work Can Salvage Lebanon’s

need to follow “due process” is certainly necessary, even vital, in tackling individual cases; but the Economy - Franklin Lamb

language and customs of the new country of mutuality and respect has to be shaped as much in the
Photo Essay: Palestine’s
re-articulation of those other kinds of social relations as well – it can’t be set in the stultifying
Disappearing Cinemas - Ahmad
legacies of “due process”. Which means that, in the course of any
Al-Bazz
of these kinds of re-articulations of social relations, “due process” may well – indeed, is bound to –
sometimes suffer. Men in particular need to understand that this is an inevitable, if not very 16 Million-Strong Organization
salubrious, outcome of shaking up the conditions of inequality that they have, generally speaking, In India Joins The BDS
been the bene ciaries of for so many millennia. The repeatedly raised bogey in this context is that Movement - Press Release
unless “due process” is followed, women can allege sexual harassment baselessly. This is not only
Adani Port In Vizhinjam Hits A
another manifestation of the fear of disempowerment noted earlier, it is an almost unconscious,
knee-jerk attempt to retain control over the speech, articulations and discourse of the victims. More, Road Block As Locals Step Up

it fails to take into account the fact that “due process”, however fair it strives to be, is necessarily Agitation - Countercurrents.org

administered institutionally, and hence is itself always already compromised by the inequalities and
From Gandhi To Catalans, The
disparities that suffuse our institutions. Often, the ght against sexual harassment, as well as gender-
Revolutionary Movement Of
based violence, is as much to ensure that “due process” serves to actually protect the victims, as
Peacemakers - Nozomi Hayase
against the speci c perpetrators. Thus, “due process” may be – and should be – insisted on by those
who possess (any degree of) institutional clout, whether men or women, especially to the extent that it
Reexamining Professional
protects the victims; but those without that clout – and this includes the vast majority of victims of
Development Wisdom - Moin
any kind of social violence, including (perhaps especially) gender-based violence – are unable to
Qazi
insist that this very “due process” be adhered to, when seeking justice, and consequently, may well
refuse to adhere to its demands themselves. In case it is not clear from the above, let me explicitly Catalonia Announces Plan For
clarify that I am not rubbishing “due process”, just pointing out its limitations. It is vital to remember Independence As Madrid
that if the stipulations of institutional “due process” are followed strictly, the most disempowered
Threatens Military Rule -
victims of sexual harassment (children, for instance, or Dalits) may never be allowed to speak. Men Alejandro López
need to recognize, accept and deal with this respectfully; they need to respond, as both Karen Gabriel
and Ratna Raman note, not by claiming victimhood because “due process” was not followed in Humane And Ethical? … Oh,
naming and shaming them, but with grace and generosity towards the accusers. This may well be De nitely Not! - Sally Dugman
reconstructed as an entirely new kind of “due process”, which actually cognizes inequalities and
imbalances in power. Further, much of what I have noted above applies not just to heterosexual
Alleged Gang Rape Of A Minor
relations but to heteronormative relations in general, and hence to other kinds of sexual relationships
Girl By Security Force Personnel
too, that adopt the usual gendered power imbalances. It is in the hands of those in power, both men
- Press Release
and women, to facilitate the dialogue that is so essential, so crucial to the emergence of the new
language and customs within which such a new “due process” can emerge; the men who feel they
have been wrongly named as sexual harassers have a particularly signi cant role to play in this
facilitation. The student I had mentioned earlier (whose name unfortunately I do not recall) Ratna Videos See All »

Raman, Karen Gabriel, V Geetha and the many other women who have highlighted this most
important aspect of this controversy need a huge “Thank you!”
Chennai Poromboke Paadal ft. T…
P K Vijayan is Asst Professor, Dept of English, Hindu College, Delhi

1 ‘Those Who Should Be Named and the Feminist October Revolution’, Hardnews, 27 October 2017.
Available at http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2017/10/those-who-should-be-named-and-feminist-
october-revolution 2 See 2. 2. https://www.facebook.com/karen.gabriel.14/posts/10155797677248427

3 Melodrama and the Nation: The Sexual Economies of Mainstream Bombay Cinema, 1970-2000
(New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2010).

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 2/6
10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents

Share this: Chennai Poromboke Paadal ft. TM

            
Tags: Naming And Shaming

Editor’s Picks

Leave a Reply

Enter your comment here...

Adivasis Dance Today: The

First Ever FIR Filed Against
Durga Puja
by Dr Goldy M. George — 39 comments

I disapprove of what you say, but I will

defend to the death your right to say it
Evelyn Beatrice Hall Durga pooja and
Dussehra may be a day of celebration of
Brahmanic Hindus of India. But not for the
Adivasis. It is also the day when their
ancestors/gods are killed and their killing is
being celebrated. But not anymore. [Read
More…]

Share this:

       
8K+

    
The Bullet Train by
Poet Aadhar No: 9876
5432 1001 ( The rst
Aadhaar linked poem)
by Ra Sh — 6 comments

Dear Gauri….. Dear Gauri….. A Letter

A Letter To To Gauri Lankesh
Gauri by Anitha S — 1 comment
Lankesh

Archives

October 2017

September 2017
August 2017

July 2017
June 2017
May 2017

April 2017
March 2017

February 2017

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 3/6
10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents
January 2017

December 2016
November 2016
October 2016

September 2016
August 2016
July 2016

June 2016

Countercurrents.org
Like Page 88K likes

Be the first of your friends to like this

Countercurrents.org
19 hours ago

'Refugee camps' of sorts or just make

shift shelters of "Rohingya" minorities
of Myanmar, who have fled the
genocide and ethnic cleansing
perpetrated by the Myanmar army and
majority population, have sprung up
along the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border. These camps are stretching
from just outside of the barbwire
fences erected by Myanmar
government to the Bangladeshi
territory across the no-man's land.
The persecuted and denied citizens of
Myanmar are clinging there, still in
fear,... See More

Follow @Countercurrents

Countercurrents
google.com/+CountercurrentsOrg

Educate! Organize! Agitate!

Follow

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 4/6
10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents

The Political Economy Of Beef

Ban

Countercurrents Anthology-Vol 1

Countercurrents Youtube
Channel

Annual Subscription Join Our News Letter Submission Guidelines Popular Tags

If you like what you are reading
please join our annual
subscription programme.
Countercurrents.org is a 100%
reader supported website. We
believe independent journalism
will function properly only if it is
Keep Uptodate With The World!!!
Join Our News Letter Today !! We
tell you what the mainstream
media fails to tell you, or hides
from you. These are the things
that really matter. The things
which may determine the fate of
Countercurrents.org welcomes Aadhaar Card Afghanistan Ahwazi
articles from writers, activists,
journalists and also from our
Arab American
readers who have no prior Imperialism Annihilate
experience in writing, on topics
Caste Beef Ban Beef Ban
that we deal with regularly or on
topics that you think need a Lynching Brexit Burhan Wani

economically independent. We
do not accept advertising by our
policy. We would rather die than
accept advertisements from
corporate giants. A small annual
subscription sustains us. Get an
annual subscription HERE
planet earth! The future of our
children! In a word, the survival
wider circulation. Kindly use the
word "SUBMISSION" in the
Cartoons Climate
of the species! To receive our subject line You can submit your
Change Counter Solutions
daily news digest please click articles to
HERE editor@countercurrents.org. Dakota Access
More Submission guidelines are
HERE Pipeline

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 5/6
10/29/2017 Naming And Shaming: Men, Sexual Harassment And “Due Process” – Countercurrents

Demonetisation
Donald Trump
Education Gauri Lankesh

Global Warming GMO

Health Hillary Clinton

Hindutva Human Rights India-

Pakistan Peace Initiative India Now

ISIS Israel Kashmir K

P Sasi Cartoons Narmada

Bachao Andolan North Korea

Nuclear War Palestine Peak

Oil Poetry Resource Crisis

Rohingya Muslims RSS

Standing Rock Sioux

Protest Syria The
Commons Turkey US
Elections 2016 US Travel

Ban Yemen

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/28/naming-and-shaming-men-sexual-harassment-and-due-process/ 6/6