There have been many moments in history where women have raised their voices for their rights and equality but one of the most prominent instances of this would be the Me Too movement.
‘Me Too’ is a social movement that spoke up against sexual harassment and sexual abuse wherein victims, predominantly women publicly outed their abusers with the hashtag #MeToo on social media. While the movement is inclusive of all genders, binary and non-binary, it has a unique focus on the feminine stance on the subject.
This movement was first brought about in 2006 by Tarana Burke who is a survivor of sexual abuse, she took to MySpace to speak about her experiences in order to empower young and vulnerable women through empathy. She believed this would help other women speak up against the injustices they’ve faced.
Following this, in 2015 an Italian model Ambra Gutierrez accused Harvey Weinstein(a convicted sex offender and filmmaker) of touching her inappropriately. She worked closely with the New York Police Department and even managed to obtain an audio recording of Weinstein admitting to his crimes against her, but the New York district attorney’s office ended up not filing any charges on the account of ‘Insufficient Evidence’ though, the NYPD said it was more than enough. Gutierrez then went on to support the Me Too movement in Iran by speaking about her story.
It was in 2017 when the Me Too movement was at its peak. In accordance to the exposure of Harvey Weinstein being a sex offender and predator; actress, producer, and activist Alyssa Milano sent out a tweet on October 15th, 2017 saying “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” The tweet gained immense momentum in the industry alone, with more than 200,000 tweets using the hashtag by the end of the day. Many celebrities such as Uma Thurman, Lady Gaga followed suit and took part in advocating this movement. The tweet emphasized the feeling of solidarity between sexual assault victims.
The rapid spread of this movement called for a change in laws relating to sexual harassment and destigmatized the conversations related to sex crimes globally. “Victims of sexual violence face stigma in the first place is emblematic of entrenched social structures that marginalize their voices. This context firmly places the #MeToo movement within the context of feminist activism.” (Xiong, Cho, and Boatwright, 2019)
The Me Too movement is only a spark to the long-overdue conversation of the injustices a woman faces in her day-to-day life. Many countries such as India(PBS NewsHour, 2017), Pakistan(The New Republic, 2019), and the United Kingdom have also taken this opportunity to voice their struggles and gain the same momentum to make a change.
References
- Xiong, Y., Cho, M. and Boatwright, B. (2019). Hashtag activism and message frames among social movement organizations: Semantic network analysis and thematic analysis of Twitter during the #MeToo movement. Public Relations Review, [online] 45(1), pp.10–23. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0363811118302303?token=9557BB61823725035C7CEA8E55D77BA6CF05A1D1679DAB2C50C7A7B7F6DC4280D21D4225212B3DC13E9C61A436F6E925&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20220128054004.
- PBS NewsHour (2017). Women in India are also saying #MeToo. [online] PBS NewsHour. Available at: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/women-in-india-are-also-saying-metoo.
- The New Republic. (2019). Making #MeToo Work in Pakistan. [online] Available at: https://newrepublic.com/article/153355/making-metoo-work-pakistan.
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