In times when women and activists are utilizing their social media platform to raise support for women’s rights amidst the rise of femicide in the country, singer and actor Meesha Shafi pointed out how vital it is to understand what performative ally ship and how it harms the movement more than supporting it.
What is performative ally ship? It is when a famous figure or a person may appear to be someone on social media who supports human rights causes, but in reality their actions may not reflect their words online which can be revealed through the kind of people they interact with or how much effort they make in putting efforts in the causes they believe in.
Meesha Shafi used her Instagram stories to elaborate on how performative ally ship can be recognized, which is when a person may write a few words supporting a cause on social media, but in their personal life they are surrounded by the same abusers and perpetuators the movement is dedicated to holding accountable for their actions:
“A lot of you are asking for context out of genuine curiosity and need to understand.
Partying with, supporting, giving/sharing space, validating, endorsing and doing frivolous IG LIVES with known sexual harassers and then putting out holier than thou statements about calling out predators is LITERAL HYPOCRISY”
Meesha also pointed out how damaging performative ally ship can be to victims of harassment because it has a damaging impact on their mental health since confiding in to others about their abuse is already a quite difficult experience:
“You might have missed that this happened. Or forgotten. But the victims and their trauma cannot miss it or forget it even when they want to. They can’t miss it because they feel it in their hearts. In their gut. In their mental health. In their nausea. In their daily lives.
You don’t get to say this without first holding yourself accountable for your own enabling actions and words defending and supporting predators after survivors have shared their experiences against all odds.
NO JUST NO.”
