Sunny Leone On Sexual Harassment, ‘It Takes One Woman To Talk’

When the entire entertainment and political world was bewildered with the alleged sexual allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. John Conyers, and others, it is a former adult film star who talked about sexual harassment in the workplace. Sunny Leone, a former adult entertainer and current Bollywood actress, recently stated that all it takes is one single woman to come forward and it gives courage to the other women to follow her steps.

During Sunny Leone’s recent interview with FirstPost, she revealed that it’s only a matter of time before actresses from the Indian film industry will come forward just like the way Hollywood actresses have come forward to talk about the sexual harassment they have faced.

“It takes one woman to talk, and then many others follow. I haven’t been privy to this situation because I have my husband (Daniel Weber) and my team with me, although people have been cheeky. But what has been happening now is insane. I read a lot on psychology and have been trying to understand the emotions in a woman’s mind (when she’s subjected to harassment). A woman may feel, ‘This happened to me and it is wrong but I don’t know how to say that aloud. I am embarrassed, I’m scared — what if they come after me, what if something happens to me?'”

Sunny further added that there are many actresses in Bollywood who think that if they talk about the harassment they have faced, then there are chances they won’t get further work.

“As a woman, you either stand up for yourself, or maybe you haven’t quite mustered the confidence to do that as yet, or after hearing all these stories which are in the news, maybe now it feels okay to women to say, ‘This is wrong. I don’t want this,'” she added.

Former adult star Sunny Leone has remained under controversy ever since she left her job as an adult entertainer and entered into the Indian film industry to try her luck as an actress. At the beginning of her Bollywood career, she came under the media knife for appearing in an advertisement which was promoting safe sex.

A famous safe-sex protection brand, ManForce, hired Sunny Leone as the face of their commercial. The actress starred in a couple of advertisements in which she was promoting the use of condoms. However, her actions did not go over well with some politicians. An Indian politician even claimed that the reasons behind the ongoing rapes in India are the repetitive telecast of Sunny Leone’s adult commercials on social media and on television.

When the One Night Stand movie actress heard about the controversy, she immediately took to her Twitter and urged the politicians to handle major issues like terrorism and poverty in India rather than focusing on what she does as an actress.

Furthermore, Sunny Leone is not ashamed of her previous body of work and knows for a fact that even in India, where she has been trying her luck for the past five years, there are many who see her as an adult entertainer only. However, that does not stop her from doing her work. During one of her earlier interviews, she revealed that she does not care what other people think of her as long as she is busy working on her projects.

“I actually don’t care what people say about me, I just want to work and have fun. If I like the script I will work on it,” she said.

[Featured Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]