Harvey Weinstein, former film producer and co-founder of Miramax, has been accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape more than forty times. There are more allegations that are still being reported. Many of the allegations range from years ago to recently. Victims of Weinstein’s acts, have revealed that they were scared to come out because they feared being blacklisted.
This scandal has inspired other victims of sex crimes to share their stories. Some individuals used the hashtag “#MeToo” to accompany their stories. Many believe Alyssa Milano started the hashtag after tweeting “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet…so we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” The hashtag’s creator is Tarana Burke.
Burke is best known for her activism. She started the hashtag ten years ago to get a conversation going about sexual assault. When asked by Journal- news about some of the reasons that inspired her to start this movement, Burke replied with “It started with young people and I quickly realized adults needed it too…when you experience trauma and meet other people.”