People are flooding social media this week with a hashtag, #MeToo, in hopes of demonstrating the magnitude in which sexual assault and harassment are an ongoing, and unacceptable, problem.
The chain message instructs users to write “Me Too” in their social media status.
Suggested by a friend: “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.”
It’s uncertain who started the trend, but it’s taken off like wildfire in the last 24 hours, doing exactly what it was intended to do: shed light on the magnitude of this problem.
Celebrities even got in on the trend, which hits close to home in wake of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual abuse and harassment of women.
The Hollywood movie mogul first drew attention last week when the New York Times released an investigative report accusing Weinstein of sexual assault, harassment and even rape. Since the scandal first broke, more than 35 women have stepped forward with their own personal accounts of sexual harassment, abuse and rape by Weinstein.
Alyssa Milano is just one of dozens of celebrities who Tweeted a photo of the movement’s instructions with a message that said, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write “me too” as a reply to this Tweet.
Milano is not one of the women claiming to have been sexually harassed by Weinstein. Still, a woman who knows what it’s like to endure sexual harassment in the workplace, Milano took to her blog, penning some thoughts of her own in a post called “My Comments on the Harvey Weinstein Scandal.”
“While I am sickened and angered over the disturbing accusations of Weinstein’s sexual predation and abuse of power, I’m happy—ecstatic even—that it has opened up a dialogue around the continued sexual harassment, objectification and degradation of women,” she writes.
Milano, who is friends with Weinstein’s now-estranged wife, said she’s passionate about women’s rights—both in, and out of Hollywood.
“Sexual harassment and assault in the workplace are not just about Harvey Weinstein,” she wrote.” We must change things in general. We must do better for women everywhere.”
Share this story with your friends, and join the “Me too” movement today.
