In the days
leading to Ake Arts and Literature Festival, there was a huge rumble.
Apparently, one of the darlings of the literati had put up a series of posts
questions why in cases of sexual harrassament (for the sake of this post,
harrassment will include
rape, DV and all other disgusting behavior related to
it), there is a huge rush to support the victim and shame the accussed even
without caring to know or find out if the accusation is false.
Nnedi
okorafor had dared to question why people who are accussed of sexual harassment
are suddenly demonized without anyone trying to follow the general rule of
"innocent until proven guilty". The horror, the hell, the fights, the
drawn lines that came as a result was so much she, in all her powers, strength,
intelligence and beauty had to delete the tweets which basically is a form of
"running back to your house to hide under your parent's bed after you have
been flogged" and even after that, some people had planned to call her out
during the festival
But really?
American
movie director, Emily Lindin last night in a series of tweets said that she is
willing to accept that innocent people accused of harrassment will be jailed,
lose jobs and respects, lose value, lose family, lose their names etc because
too many women have been victims of harrassments and if innocent people are hit
in the process of fighting this, then fine. So basically, to her, if you are
accused of harrassment, you did it and she is willing to join the bandwagon to
fight you, trend your name, make you lose your job, possibly lose your family
and if you can't stand the shame and take your own life, oops.
Now, as much
as I find punisment by social media very effective and it has helped a lot of
people get justice in the sense of naming and shamming, the attitude of
"if he/she was accused of it, I will assume the person did it and fight
the person without prove" is scary because the court of public opinion is
harsh. You can lose everything in hours and never get a chance to take it back
even if you are found to be innocent.
I believe
that in fighting evil, we should not create another form of evil. In fighting
patriarchy, don't let us create some hedious monster to take its place. Yes, I
understand that sexual harrassment is hell and it has to be fought but I
believe there are better ways to fight it than put the innocent on the line
saying "they are collacteral damage" we as feminists have to do better,
we have to do more. If we want to replace a system which we have found to be
corrupt, shameful, disgusting and needing a total change, we need to replace it
with a system where almost no one is a victim or bystander who was hit by a
stray bullet. We as feminists need to demand more from ourselves the same way
we demand more from other. Call out the bullshit in our ranks because this
bullshit will simply derail progress.
You ask why
it will derail progress? a lot of people who are accused of harrassment
actually did it (going by percentages) but when innocent people get shamed by
this new system of justice, there will be a reaction, a backlash, a call to
order by the authorities. Laws will be made, consequencies will be fuxed and
guess what it will be against? This gag will not just be against calling out
people who are accused but innocent but against all forms of calling out. Soon,
it will be illegal to publicly accuse anyone of these things except you go
through some government stipulated process just because some people dont have
the sense to draw lines.
To the Kings
out there, you are Kings. Act like Kings, dont do these yama yama things, hold
your heads high, wear your crown with pride and dont get stained because of a
few minutes of pleasure.
To the Queens,
be brave, strong, break boundaries, refuse to be limited by society, draw your
own limits yourself and flourish in your own success.
Mynd Out
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