Right: the #metoo movement has rolled across America and the world - and shows no signs of stopping.
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Background information
(The information below has been drawn from the Wikipedia entry titled ' Me Too ( hash tag)'. The full text can be accessed at
)"Me Too" (or "#MeToo", with local alternatives in other languages) spread virally in October 2017 as a two-word hash tag used on social media to help demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. It followed soon after the public revelations of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Origin
Social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke created the phrase "Me Too" on the Myspace social network in 2006 as part of a grassroots campaign to promote "empowerment through empathy" among women of colour who have experienced sexual abuse, particularly within underprivileged communities. Burke, who is creating a documentary titled Me Too, has said she was inspired to use the phrase after being unable to respond to a 13-year-old girl who confided to her that she had been sexually assaulted. Burke later wished she had simply told the girl, "me too".
On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano encouraged spreading the phrase as part of an awareness campaign in order to reveal the ubiquity of the problem, tweeting: "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too.' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." Milano later acknowledged earlier use of the phrase by Burke, writing on Twitter, "I was just made aware of an earlier #MeToo movement, and the origin story is equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring".
Purpose
The original purpose of #MeToo by creator Tarana Burke was to empower women through empathy, especially the experiences of young and vulnerable brown or black women. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano encouraged using the phrase to help reveal the extent of problems with sexual harassment and assault by showing how many people have experienced these events themselves.
However, after millions of people started using the phrase, and it spread to dozens of other languages, the purported purpose began to change and expand, and has come to mean different things for different people. Though creator Tarana Burke accepts the title of the leader of the movement, she has stated she considers herself a worker of something much bigger. She has stated that this movement has grown to include both men and women of all colors and ages, and supports marginalized people in marginalized communities. There have also been movements by men aimed at changing the culture through personal reflection and future action, including #IDidThat, #IHave, and #IWill.
Burke stated in an interview that the conversation has expanded, and now in addition to empathy there is also a focus on determining the best ways to hold perpetrators responsible and stop the cycle.
Laws and policies
Burke has stated the current purpose of the movement is to give people the resources to have access to healing. She has advocated a change to "legitimate things like policies and laws", highlighting goals such as processing all untested rape kits, re-examining local school policies, improving the vetting of teachers, and updating sexual harassment policies.[19] She has called for all teachers or paraprofessionals to be fingerprinted and subjected to a background check before being cleared to work with children. Burke supports the #MeToo Congress bill, which would remove the requirement that staffers of the federal government go through months of "cooling off" before being allowed to file a complaint against a Congressperson.
Milano has stated that there should be a universal code of conduct and a standard protocol across all industries so victims are able to file complaints and be taken seriously without fear of retaliation. She stated that a priority for #MeToo should be changing the laws surrounding sexual harassment and assault. She supports a legal framework that makes it harder for publicly traded companies to hide cover-up money from their stockholders and opposes the practice of requiring new employees sign NDAs (that would silence future victims from talking about what happened in the workplace) as a condition of their employment.
Time's Up
Milano announced in an interview with Rolling Stone that she and 300 other women in the film industry are now supporting Time's Up, an initiative that aims to help fight sexual violence and harassment in the workplace through lobbying and providing funding for victims to get legal help if they can't afford it. Time's Up started with $13 million in donations for its legal defence fund. The initiative aims to lobby for legislation that creates financial consequences for companies that regularly tolerate harassment without action. A working group from Time's Up helped create a Hollywood Commission that examines Sexual Harassment, which is led by Anita Hill. Another group is working towards legislation that would discourage the use of NDAs to keep victims from talking about sexual harassment they experienced.
A substantial list of prominent men accused of sexual harassment or assault current to January 11, 2018, has been published by The New Yorker. It can be accessed at