In her new article, Maria Veitola takes a stand on harassment.
According to Veitola, the focus should be on the victims, not just the perpetrator. Pete Anikari
Supplier Maria Veitola writes about harassment in his recent Instagram post.
Over the past few days, Aku Hirviniemi’s inappropriate behavior towards women has made headlines. Hirviniemi has apologized for his behavior himself and has said that he sought help.
Veitola does not mention Hirviniemi by name in his writing.
– I can’t stand these hero stories anymore, where the wrongdoers get a wide understanding and all the sympathy that moves. Why don’t we focus on all the ones that have been broken along the way? Veitola ponders.
According to Veitola, the focus should be on, for example, victims, colleagues, friends and loved ones.
Veitola believes that a person who has done something wrong can make a change in his own behavior and “correct his actions”. Despite this, praising them for their courage is not fair to Veitola.
The brave side
In her article, Veitola shares her own view on who is the brave party in various harassment discussions.
– I think particularly brave people are the women who have brought up their experiences and the few journalists who have raised these voices. Without them, the activity, which lasted for years and targeted numerous people, would never have been revealed. These people have taken a big risk despite the anger, accusations and possible reduction in job opportunities directed at them, Veitola emphasizes.
– It is really difficult, sometimes even impossible to tell about the harassment you have experienced. This is especially the case when the perpetrator is a man in a dominant position and the target of the act is a younger woman. In light of the events of the last few weeks, I’m not surprised at all, he continues.
Veitola writes that those affected by men’s behavior are belittled, and men who have committed inappropriate behavior are encouraged on discussion forums.
– It’s so hard when you’ve been caught in bad behavior – a sexual crime, disturbing messages and discriminatory or attitudinal behavior. And for some reason it’s not interesting if a clear crime hasn’t happened. Unfortunately, not all disruptive and inappropriate behavior is criminal. And yet it can break and traumatize.
– When we finally talk about these cases, we almost always only deal with the tip of the iceberg. Most abuses never become visible. Power structures protect rich and famous wrongdoers, Veitola concludes.
Hirviniemi has been accused of sending inappropriate messages in public. Many women previously told Seiska that Hirviniemi’s messages had sexual connotations.
Due to the incident, Hirviniemi has resigned from the board of his production company. In addition to this, he was thrown out of the Helsinki City Theater production and the little Christmas gig was cancelled.