Barkha Dutt recently confessed to being a victim of child abuse in her recently released book, ‘This Unquiet Land’ and at the 2015 ‘Women In The World Summit’.
“When something like this happens and when you’re a child — I was younger than 10 years old— you bury it. You bury it and you try and forget it.”
Barkha haters, as there are quite a lot, seized the chance to troll her to no end.
Nobody seemed to be convinced of Barkha Dutt’s vulnerable confession and made extremely offensive remarks on her personal life and her character as a woman.
And it went on and on..
While its acceptable to disagree or even be offended by someone’s professional abilities (or inabilities), what is certainly not okay is to cross the line of trolling a sensitive issue belonging to a woman’s personal life.
Harnidh Kaur wrote a series of powerful Tweets as a reply to the misogynists on Twitter who felt no shame in trolling a woman having the guts to speak about an issue as taboo as child sexual abuse.
Now imagine that you really want to keep them happy. You idolize them, and you think they couldn’t EVER do any wrong. They’re your world.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
If you still say no, they threaten to tell your parents you’re not listening to them/you’re a bad child or that they’ll never talk to you.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
So you let the person touch you, maul your prepubescent body, kiss you with breath sometimes reeking of alcohol, and you don’t say a word.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
You’re given a chocolate. And you’re told this is your ‘special secret’. No one should know. It’s just between us. You’re my favorite.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
It goes on till your mother realizes you’re 12 and you cry when your uncle hugs you. When she finds cuts on your upper arms when you’re 15.
Advertisement— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
Her second reaction is ‘it’s all in the past. Let it go. He’s a senior member of the family, he has a family, how can you be so selfish?’
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
You don’t know how to trust someone, you don’t know how to differentiate between affection and abuse, you only relate sex to power.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
You don’t know how to trust someone, you don’t know how to differentiate between affection and abuse, you only relate sex to power.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
You rationalize everything to yourself as your own fault. ‘I never stopped him. I let her touch me. I could have raised my voice.’
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
And when you, as an adult, finally reach a point where you CAN speak up, people shut you down, because ‘how didn’t you know it was wrong?’
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
when you troll someone like @BDUTT on twitter, you’re ACTIVELY playing a gigantic part in propagating this culture of shame and silence.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
Thank you for reading. People need to know this. You need to know this. You also need to promise yourself that you’ll never let this happen.
— Peglet (@PedestrianPoet) April 12, 2016
Apart from being applause worthy, these Tweets have not only stood for Barkha but also revealed what’s really wrong with the attitude of internet shamers. While it takes a Tweet to post your irrational ideas and assumptions, it takes a whole lot of valiance to bring your past forth in front of the entire world.
