Sexual harassment is not erotic: Publishing steamy excerpts from Pachauri's novel now is wrong

Roughly a week after a man - renowned, respected and powerful - is accused of not only sexually harassing a junior, but also cannily using his position of privilege to make it impossible for her keep him at a safe distance, guess what the media is feasting on? An erotic novel written by the accused. Days after TERI chief RK Pachauri was implicated in a case of sexual harassment, that too with incriminating proof, a smattering of publications and news websites have found it necessary to refer to and discuss an erotic novel written by the author. As a box item in an article titled “Climate Changes for Pachauri”, Mail Today refers to ‘ A Very Steamy Debut Novel’. Apart from providing an outline of the plot of Pachauri’s novel ‘Return to Almora’, the paper picks out what it considers are the steamiest bits from the novel. Six excerpts that involve sexual activities in the novel are then listed out alongside a report of Pachauri stepping down IPCC chief. NDTV headlines a profile on the author as, ‘RK Pachauri’s Controversies Have Included a Sex Novel’. Outlook has published an article titled “Spotlight on RK Pachauri’s Steamy Literary Past’. Outlook digs up their old review of the novel which was published in 2010 and quotes from it. Apart from that, they also quote longish excerpts from the sex scenes in the novel. [caption id=“attachment_2123295” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The screengrab from the Mail Today epaper.[/caption] Now, what is wrong with carrying steamy excerpts alongside a report on sexual harassment and even separately in the same context? Everything. For starters, printing excerpts of sex scenes from a work of fiction completely trivializes the issue at hand. Sexual harassment at work places plagues several women across the world. In fact, it gives a grave incident of misconduct a voyeuristic colour. Except for perhaps encouraging readers to relate graphic scenes penned by the accused with the incident that is being reported, logically, it serves no purpose. If the said publications want to suggest that the fact that Pachauri wrote an erotic novel is evidence of his contorted sexual behaviour, they completely misappropriate and misrepresent what drives sexual harassment at work places. Sexual harassment thrives due to a combination of skewed power relations, a woman’s fear of stigma and anxiety about her career or her future and  shoddy corporate infrastructure to  address issues such as these. It is not an isolated occurrence, and nor is it perpetrated by men who also sit and write novels on sexual liberation. Then, publishing those excerpts encourage readers to consider the real event as something facile and melodramatic. It is very daunting for women who already struggle to report harassment in the workplace for fear of being labelled the over-sensitive, attention-craving drama queen, among other things. For example, an interview with the victim in Pachauri case, published on today’s _Economic Times_ says that the TERI chief’s lawyers are invoking an age-old slacker-shaming argument to counter her allegations. They have now said that the woman has insinuated Pachauri because she was asked to ‘move’ for bad performance. In a scenario such as this, when leading media publications make such irresponsible, forced associations, it discourages women further from reporting such crimes. Put yourself in the shoes of the victim in this case and look at what several of these websites and publications did. You have put up with prolonged harassment by a powerful man, you have somehow managed to gather the courage to report him, you have no clue what lies in the future, though you are the victim your motivations, honour and morals are now being questioned. And then when you land the morning paper, you are hit by sex excerpts being carried alongside a story on your trials. What do you do? You are either blinded with helpless rage because there is no way to strike back at the big, bad media. Or in your mind, you curl yourself up in a small ball and hide from the world and struggle to tell yourself that this was a hassle worth taking up. Because all those publications read by thousands of people just callously associated your ordeal with sleaze. The Outlook article concludes with the following lines: ” The last sentence from Outlook’s review of the novel stands undisputed: And rather than a Nobel, what it might get Pachauri, at most, is the Bad Sex award." Unless one thinks that bad sex is as distressing as being pursued and groped by man against your wish, one cannot fathom what statement the Outlook article is trying to make here. Taking cue from the mainstream publications, after having listed out the ‘raciest’ bits from Pachauri’s novel, a website called Youth Ki Awaaz says the following in the disclaimer: “Pronouncing a verdict on Pachauri is the court’s job. His work as IPCC chief and the little headway made in climate change mitigation should not be doubted against the backdrop of his impending sexual harassment trial.” That reads like someone telling you: “He might be a sexual predator but don’t hate him yet. He did a great job on climate change awareness after all.” Incidents of sexual violence and harassment have always sparked voyeuristic reactions from the media and its consumers. The fall-out of such coverage results in people questioning the motives and morals of the victim. In fact, victims of sex crimes anyway face such daunting scrutiny without the media joining the chorus. It is highly unbecoming of the self proclaimed conscience keepers of the society indulging in a sleaze fest over an issue as serious as harassment.