Look At #MeToo in All Fields, Not Just Bollywood: Vani Tripathi

Video Editor: Vishal Kumar

An actor, politician, and activist, Vani Tripathi is a familiar face during 9 pm debates on national television. The CBFC member and former secretary for the Bharatiya Janata Party was a special guest at the Outlook Speak Out 2018 – a platform which brings together achievers who have made a difference by pushing the envelope of excellence in their chosen field. The Quint was digital partner for the second edition of Outlook Speak Out that focussed on ‘women’s empowerment’.

Watch and read the excerpts from our conversation with Vani Tripathi.

With  Tanushree Duttta speaking out, do you think Indian film industry is poised for a #MeToo movement?

The film industry is not the only place where women are harassed or sexually misappropriated. I think we need to look at the situation of misappropriation of women at the workplace and broad-stroke it to understand that the kind of culture we belong to doesn’t coincide with misbehaving with women. If more and more women speak about it, it becomes a very courageous and empowering narrative. But it will only be complete if we were to look at the sensitivities around these subjects and understand how to deal with these sensibilities.

How has cinema, through the decades, affected the way women are perceived?

I think this decade is a #gamechanger.

If you look at the narratives around women characters.

One, they have stopped being side-kicks to superheroes who beat up 15 people. The narratives are now very real – women and their problems. They are also not conventionally pretty – no hour glass figure, rain-drenched song and dance sequences – and that’s a huge change. The narrative is about women coming from different parts of the country, whether in metro cities or small villages, addressing issues like depression, body shaming, menstrual hygiene. When was the last time we had these kind of subjects playing out in cinema?

Another big change in the narrative is that it was kosher to have a centripetal character as a woman. Now these films are also commercial successes and I think that is a big change and we are at the cusp of an absolutely new narrative as far as portrayal of women in cinema is concerned.

Do you think the narrative is far ahead of the reality because we don’t see anyone speaking up in the industry on the Tanushree Dutta case?

The fact that this is being discussed and you and I are talking about it... isn’t that a big enough change? In Hollywood, what became the #MeToo took many, many decades. We cannot be impatient with this narrative. It’s not easy for women. Remember, they are not only objectified, they are also being judged for speaking out. People always say ‘isi ne kuch kiya hoga – she must have done something and she deserves so’.

The coming out of women will not be the solution to the issue, the solution would be to start understanding the mindset which makes these people behave with women the way they do.

As an activist who encourages women to join the political sphere, do you think that political parties are doing enough, or have done enough to encourage women in the last 4-10 years?

I think one big change is the entry of professional women becoming a part of the political spectrum, like me for example. Also, the whole situation of saying that it’s the son and the husband and the brothers and so on and so forth who rule or become the back bench of power structure and women do not have a say even if they are elected... All this is collapsing, but still we have a long way ahead as far as the parliamentary representation of women is concerned. Capacity building for women below the age of 35 – I think that’s the way forward.