“Shoutout to @Samanthaprabhu2 She has truly been a friend in need, constantly being in touch, asking how she could help, how she could support. Women like her who help other women are rockstars,” she wrote.
Shoutout to @Samanthaprabhu2
She has truly been a friend in need, constantly being in touch, asking how she could help, how she could support. Women like her who help other women are rockstars.— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) December 25, 2018
Her message went out to noted journalists including Karthigaiselvan, Dhanya Rajendran, Priyanka Thirumoorthy, and Sandhya Menon to name a few. This was for their undying support towards her rallying the #MeToo movement in the South, particularly outing her harasser – National Award winning lyricist Vairamuthu.
The last few months have been an important one for women in India, where women have been outing their harassers with their identity and anonymously, too. While this is being dubbed as India’s #MeToo and #TimesUp movement that was originally started by student Raya Sarkar’s list of sexual harassers in academia (LoSHA) last year, this year the moment gained more attention a week ago when former actress Tanushree Dutta shared how veteran actor Nana Patekar abused and harassed her ten years ago. Ever since then, women have been opening up about workplace harassment with several names of prominent figures being added to the list.
In Hollywood last year, soon after top honcho Harvey Weinstein was outed for sexual misconduct, several other men including Woody Allen, James Franco, and several others were named for harassing and assaulting other women.
When Chinmayi shared her story and started sharing other women’s account, Samantha showed her solidarity towards the movement. She wrote: “I am so happy that more and more women are finding the strength to say #MeToo. Your bravery is commendable. I am sorry though that some people, even other women themselves will shame and burden you with the question of proof and doubt.”
She even lauded singer Chinmayi Sripada for sharing her story and other women’s stories including the outing of National Award winning lyricist Vairamuthu.
Thankyou for being so strong 🙏🙏 https://t.co/x8u3NxNVlp
— Samantha Akkineni (@Samanthaprabhu2) October 9, 2018
The #MeToo movement is against sexual harassment, particularly at the workplace. American social activist Tarana Burke used the term way back in 2006 and it was popularised by Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano in 2017 after she implored everybody to use the hashtag if they ever faced any sort of harassment. This was right in the heels of the infamous Harvey Weinstein expose, a top Hollywood honcho who was known to be a sexual predator who targeted actresses, interns, writers, and other women who worked under him, often asking them for sexual favours in exchange to boost their careers.
Read more about the movement here.
