Participating in the internet hashtag #MeToo that aims to raise awareness on how widespread harassment is, BBC journalist Rajini Vaidyanathan shared her personal story of explicit sexual advances from colleagues. The Washington correspondent said it began in an Italian restaurant in New York, when she was 25, and had gone to Manhattan for the Republican Party convention. With most of her colleagues gone, she was left to dinner with a male colleague who made an advance at her.
Sharing her cringeworthy experience, Vaidyanathan said, “We were in an Italian restaurant in New York, just after we'd finished working on a story. I was an ambitious producer who'd just been in Manhattan for the Republican convention. Most of the team had gone but a colleague and I were the last two left and we were having dinner. We'd gone to the East Village and in a dimly lit Italian restaurant, I made small talk about George W Bush and John Kerry. Then he said it. "I'm unbelievably sexually attracted to you. I can't stop thinking about you. I dropped my fork and it bounced on the plate, the spaghetti still woven around it.”
“This was a colleague twice my age, well-respected and with a girlfriend. I had experienced sexism in the workplace before, but not in such an overt way. I can't even remember what I said - but it was something all too polite, as I tried to change the conversation. He continued talking about how beautiful I was, as I ate the pasta as fast I could. I wasn't sure at the time if he'd said anything that I could reasonably complain about, but I remember feeling disgusted and uncomfortable about it.” What is most disturbing about her experience is that Vaidyanathan said she “now” knows it was “utterly unacceptable” and “just another reminder of how some men in the workplace use their power to manipulate, harass and even abuse women.”
The hashtag garnered speed by allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, a powerful Hollywood producer who faces accusations of rape and harassment. “The recent conversation about Harvey Weinstein has prompted countless conversations among my female friends about where the line stops in these situations, and when you should say something,” she said. “Do you have to be touched for it to count? What if you are friends with them? When does harassment start, and when does it end?”
Vaidyanathan's horrifying only worsened, as she once had to encounter a married colleague who sent her messages containing explicit details of his sexual desires. When she sent a reassuring message describing his thoughts as “pretty normal”, she says his behaviour worsened. “His messages continued and became more creepy,” she said. “He said he'd fantasised about sex with powerful women, and how he wanted to cheat on his wife. I told him to talk to someone else - not me - and to get help.”
The #MeToo social media movement reached across 85 countries with 1.7 million tweets. It initially went viral after actress Alyssa Milano shared it on Twitter. Milano shared a tweet saying that if people who have been sexually assaulted or harassed tweet “me too,” it might “give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” Millions responded, including high-profile celebrities like America Ferrera, Rose McGowan, Evan Rachel Wood, Gabrielle Union and more.
