In recent social media news, a new movement has been sweeping Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the recent Harvey Weinstein scandal. Popularized by actress Alyssa Milano, the “Me Too” campaign has been sweeping feeds as women publicize their personal sexual assault stories. The “Me Too” campaign is not new and was not actually created by Milano, but by an African American woman named Tarana Burke in 2007. The campaign was started to help victims realize that they are not alone through seeing others around them posting #MeToo to show the magnitude of sexual assault.
Milano brought the campaign to more widespread popularity in the past weeks by tweeting about it and caused a celebrity outbreak of #MeToo posts. Fans of celebrities like Gabrielle Union, McKayla Maroney, Rose McGowan and Viola Davis were shocked to see so many famous faces come forward about past abuse. I was amazed to see that people are still surprised by the enormity of the sexual assault problem still evident in our world.
As an 18-year-old college student who has been a part of the workforce since age 15, I can name off the top of my head several peers who have been victimized at work, school or at home. In this way, I felt it was so important for people to take the #MeToo campaign seriously. Understanding that a scarily vast number of girls and women have had to go through some sort of sexual victimization in their lives should open everyone’s eyes to the problems our society faces in raising men that do not assault women and are not “helpless bystanders” in matters of assault.
As of October 24, the campaign went viral to over 85 countries and has over 1.7 million tweets. According to a CBS article, “Facebook said 45 percent of users in the U.S. have had friends who posted ‘me too.’” Yet, with a huge amount of solidarity in this campaign comes some backlash. Comments of disbelief in these revelations are widespread coming from both men and women.
In my own experience, I’ve heard older women express their opinion that some of these people had to be lying, there can’t truly be that many cases. This strikes me as incredibly naive and toxic to those summoning the courage to come forth with their stories. In a time where so many rape cases go uncharged and 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before turning 18, the last thing that anyone should think about is who could possibly be lying. Let’s face it, most of these people are telling the truth and begging for help to change the tradition of not talking about uncomfortable subjects.
Sexual abuse should be talked about more so that victims can feel safe to come forward and recognize what sexual assault really is in the workplace and beyond. The greater issue is that men should stop abusing women, but also that other women should stop silencing each other to protect their husbands, fathers and brothers. Once we overcome the silence, monsters like Weinstein will no longer be able to put decades of abuse under their belts and live successful lives before being caught. The #MeToo campaign is the best way to combat assault by first unveiling the magnitude of sexual assault, making victims feel safe enough to come out and lastly prosecuting the criminals.