Phoenix
Senior Member
- Location
- Oregon, U S
The Me Too Movement and Me...and Possibly You
17, 700,000 women have reported sexual assault since 1998
The Me Too Movement is an international movement against sexual harassment and assault. Starting in October of 2017 #MeToo spread virally on social media to help attest to the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment. A wave of accusations arose soon after the public revelations of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood executive.
In 2006 Tarana Burke, a social activist and community organizer, began using the phrase "Me Too". The phrase was made popular by Alyssa Milano in 2017 when she encouraged women to tweet about it and "give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem". Responses on Twitter included high-profile posts from celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence and Uma Thurman. Since then the response has mushroomed.
The problem is an old one. Women have always been sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. Often through out history women had no way to combat it. Men were physically stronger. Women who experienced these issues were in fact often blamed for causing the problems and were not believed.
Why did women not report the issues? Because people often did not believe them. One of my cousins, as I was growing up, was raped at the age of fourteen. The majority of my family did not believe her. They called her promiscuous. When my first husband was on jury duty I sat in on a rape trial with him. I was twenty. As we watched the proceedings, the court system painted the woman as wanton and demonized her in a number of ways. At the time my husband said that a woman could not be raped.
So a couple of years later when a guy I thought was a friend raped me I knew if I told the police three things would happen. First, my marriage would breakup, and at the time I did not earn enough money to afford an alternate place to live. Second, the court system would do to me what they did to that poor woman I watch on the stand. They left her in tatters. Third, most of my family would call me a whore. It was the early seventies, and women were still seen as men's property or playthings. Dan, the guy who raped me, planned it very carefully. He was one of my coworkers at the school district where I worked as a clerk. He was 330 lbs, a weightlifter and 6'3" tall. I weighed 110 lbs and was 5'3". I will spare you the details, but he was way stronger than I was. Afterward he wondered why I was upset and why "I" had ended our "friendship".
The events of recent years with all the women coming forward to state what happened to them at the hands of those with power over them, has given support to others, who now don't feel so alone. But often these women are still not believed. These types of crimes against women reach into the highest offices in the U.S. Unfortunately, people often still believe these men instead of their victims.
Even on social media sites it still happens. Unwanted sexual harassment in the form of a man telling a woman in crude detail what he's doing to himself, while he looks at her picture, even when she has made it very clear over and over that she is not interested. This has happened to me. The last time was a few days a go on another forum. It took me so by surprise and so angered me, that I wrote my response to him, deleted what he had said, because it was so disgusting and sent my response. I unfriended him and told the other women I know on the site to be wary of him. One of them got back to me saying that she has been staying off the site, so the guys wouldn't bother her.
Ladies and the good guys on this site, I'm asking you to stand with me on this issue. If this happens to you here, please save the evidence and report it.
We need to stop this, here and now. No still means NO.
To join the Me Too Movement go to https://metoomvmt.org/ They have a list of resources.
17, 700,000 women have reported sexual assault since 1998
The Me Too Movement is an international movement against sexual harassment and assault. Starting in October of 2017 #MeToo spread virally on social media to help attest to the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment. A wave of accusations arose soon after the public revelations of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood executive.
In 2006 Tarana Burke, a social activist and community organizer, began using the phrase "Me Too". The phrase was made popular by Alyssa Milano in 2017 when she encouraged women to tweet about it and "give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem". Responses on Twitter included high-profile posts from celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence and Uma Thurman. Since then the response has mushroomed.
The problem is an old one. Women have always been sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. Often through out history women had no way to combat it. Men were physically stronger. Women who experienced these issues were in fact often blamed for causing the problems and were not believed.
Why did women not report the issues? Because people often did not believe them. One of my cousins, as I was growing up, was raped at the age of fourteen. The majority of my family did not believe her. They called her promiscuous. When my first husband was on jury duty I sat in on a rape trial with him. I was twenty. As we watched the proceedings, the court system painted the woman as wanton and demonized her in a number of ways. At the time my husband said that a woman could not be raped.
So a couple of years later when a guy I thought was a friend raped me I knew if I told the police three things would happen. First, my marriage would breakup, and at the time I did not earn enough money to afford an alternate place to live. Second, the court system would do to me what they did to that poor woman I watch on the stand. They left her in tatters. Third, most of my family would call me a whore. It was the early seventies, and women were still seen as men's property or playthings. Dan, the guy who raped me, planned it very carefully. He was one of my coworkers at the school district where I worked as a clerk. He was 330 lbs, a weightlifter and 6'3" tall. I weighed 110 lbs and was 5'3". I will spare you the details, but he was way stronger than I was. Afterward he wondered why I was upset and why "I" had ended our "friendship".
The events of recent years with all the women coming forward to state what happened to them at the hands of those with power over them, has given support to others, who now don't feel so alone. But often these women are still not believed. These types of crimes against women reach into the highest offices in the U.S. Unfortunately, people often still believe these men instead of their victims.
Even on social media sites it still happens. Unwanted sexual harassment in the form of a man telling a woman in crude detail what he's doing to himself, while he looks at her picture, even when she has made it very clear over and over that she is not interested. This has happened to me. The last time was a few days a go on another forum. It took me so by surprise and so angered me, that I wrote my response to him, deleted what he had said, because it was so disgusting and sent my response. I unfriended him and told the other women I know on the site to be wary of him. One of them got back to me saying that she has been staying off the site, so the guys wouldn't bother her.
Ladies and the good guys on this site, I'm asking you to stand with me on this issue. If this happens to you here, please save the evidence and report it.
We need to stop this, here and now. No still means NO.
To join the Me Too Movement go to https://metoomvmt.org/ They have a list of resources.
