It was a normal day in an ever-present attempt to avoid homework when I started browsing through Facebook. And as I was scrolling down my news feed, I was overcome with the flood of statuses reading #MeToo. Old friends that I’ve known from preschool, people I interact with every day and even old middle school teachers were sharing this hashtag. At first, I was confused; but I immediately became overwhelmed when I found out what it meant. A million thoughts rushed through my head — disgust that I was never able to be there for them; sympathy for my friends; disappointment for my oblivion of the magnitude of sexual assault and harassment in my own community; awe at the inspiring, courageous people in my life who have overcome so much to educate the world on the prevalence of sexual assault.
For those who haven’t heard of the hashtag, #MeToo is a movement that encourages survivors of sexual abuse to share their stories on social media. It’s supposed to give the world a wake-up call regarding the magnitude of sexual violence in our communities. The spur of allegations against Harvey Weinstein prompted actress Alyssa Milano to tweet out, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” This has since prompted the hashtag to be shared approximately 500,000 times on Twitter and even more on Facebook — all in 3 days.
Although it may be easy to believe that it was the tweet that started it all, the #MeToo movement was actually founded by Tarana Burke, a survivor of a sexual assault in 2006. Burke launched the #MeToo campaign to let women who have “suffered sexual abuse, assault or exploitation know that they are not alone and to build an extended network of women who could empathize with survivors.”
Even though it took 11 years for the movement to gain media traction, its vision still remains as powerful as ever. It’s hard to imagine that a simple hashtag on its own will have any major impact in our lives. Nonetheless, the movement accomplished an important task by promoting the prevalence and magnitude of sexual violence in our society. It is the first step to starting any real change in the way we punish perpetrators who inflict sexual violence upon victims. It can also be the first of many more steps to preventing sexual abuse and harassment from happening in the first place.
#MeToo also acts as a support system to bring survivors of sexual violence together to inspire and support each other. Burke said that the place where she found the most support was “when people empathized” with her experience. That is what makes #MeToo beautiful — because it shows you you’re not alone.
Although #MeToo is a powerful tool, I think Alexis Benveniste said it best when she tweeted out “Reminder that if a woman didn’t post #MeToo, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t sexually assaulted or harassed. Survivors don’t owe you their story.”
It’s important to remember that, although #MeToo is a powerful indication of the magnitude of sexual assault, no one should feel pressured to share their story. Not posting about it on social media doesn’t make your story less real. The internet can be a scary place sometimes; it can make it hard to share something that affected you so deeply for a variety of reasons. No matter what it is, your story is important, but it is also YOURS and you aren’t obligated to share it with anyone.
Someone in America is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds. It is something that, unfortunately, happens everywhere — whether that be at school, work, with friends, or even family. #MeToo has emphasized this crazy statistic in our society; it has also not only given survivors of sexual violence a voice and platform to share their stories, but also a a support system in which they can empower each other.
Five letters carry an incredibly powerful voice in our society.