#MeToo

es293@duke.edu — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:17:39 +0000

Description:

#MeToo was created in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual assault and to ensure survivors that they are not alone in their journey. In October 2017, #MeToo went viral on Twitter, and this group became an international organization, where survivors from all over the world were sharing their stories and creating support groups for all women affected by sexual violence. They are fighting to end sexual violence and are committed to “disrupting all systems that allows sexual violence to flourish.” This will allow survivors of sexual violence to start their healing process. Additionally, Burke hopes to destigmatize survivors by bringing important conversations about sexual violence into the mainstream to show how prominent this issue is in our global society. Primarily, this group was started to help young women of color (from low wealth communities) because this group is the most marginalized in society. At the end of the day, this group wants to communicate the message to all survivors—no matter their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, ability status, or socioeconomic status—so that they are not alone in their journey.

(Quote from https://metoomvmt.org)

Goals:

Spread awareness about how big the problem of sexual harassment is and show that it is an institutional problem
Give survivors of sexual abuse a support system
Call out abusers and remove them from positions of power
Encourage bystander intervention
Provide resources to sexual assault victims
Reduce stigma associated with victims that say it was their fault they got assaulted
Spark global conversation on the issues surrounding sexual assault and sexual violence
Speak to the needs of all survivors, no matter the survivor’s gender, race, age, sexual orientation, ability status or socioeconomic status
Create long term systemic change

Historical/Political Context:

Although this group originally started in 2006, by Tarana Burke and her organization "Just Be Inc.," it really took off in late 2017, after sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein came out. In response to these allegations, many women started sharing their own stories of how they were affected by sexual harassment. After "me too" went viral, allegations against big-name celebrities started coming out, and group entered the international stage, where it became a network of smaller groups working towards the sexual harassment issue. Since then, people within the network have working with lawmakers and business to change the policies regarding sexual harassment, and how it is dealt with in the workplace.

Currently, because this movement is relatively new, no new sexual harassment policies have been created. However, many corporations are in the process of rewriting their sexual harassment policies, so that women feel more comfortable coming forward if they have been sexually harassed in the workplace. Furthermore, these groups are in the process of lobbying in Washington D.C. to create better government policies regarding sexual harassment. This is to ensure that women feel that their voices are being heard and their stories are being believed.

Structure:

#MeToo does not have one concrete structure. It was created by activist Tarana Burke and her organization "Just Be Inc." After this issue started gaining attention worldwide, #MeToo became a network of different, decentralized groups that work on eradicating this issue.

Genealogy:

The phrase "me too" was first coined in 2006, by Tarana Burke, a sexual assault survivor herself, to provide empathy and support to other victims of sexual violence, particularly low-income black and brown women. It eventually grew to support all women. Between 2006 and 2017, Burke and her organization, "Just Be Inc.," supported young women in their journey of healing. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano asked her Twitter followers to respond to her tweet with "me too" if they had ever experienced sexual assault. She tweeted this in response to allegations against Harvey Weinstein coming out. Overnight, this tweet went viral, and women all over the world were sharing their personal stories of how they experienced this violence. By 2018, Hollywood actresses were using their own platform to speak out against this issue. Since October, there have been many marches and rallies to spread awareness about sexual violence and show how big the problem really is.

Due to the viral nature of this movement, as of November 9^th, 2017, Twitter recorded 2.3 million #MeToo tweets from 85 countries around the world, and Facebook recorded 24 million people participating in the movement, with 77 million posts, reactions or comments associated with #MeToo. Since the initial take-off of the movement, there have been many linguistic and cultural variations of the movement around the world. In some countries, survivors alter #MeToo to their own language, such as Spanish for survivors in Colombia, Mexico and Spain. These citizens use the #YoTambien hashtag for their variation of the movement. In addition, other survivors have changed the #MeToo hashtag to culturally fit within their own society so that the movement can speak more to the needs of the survivors in these other areas around the world. Countries such as France, Italy or Saudi Arabia use these cultural variants: France uses #BalenceTonPorc, Italy uses #QuellaVoltaChe, and Saudi Arabia uses وانا_ايضا وانا_ايضا.

Under “Media Artifacts” below, one can visualize the viral nature of this movement. In this image, one can view the Global Reach of #MeToo from October 16th-November 6th, 2017. Within three weeks, the United States had 520,153 survivors use the #MeToo hashtag, the United Kingdom had 74,125, Canada had 43,359, India had 24,122, France had 15,362, Kenya had 2,022, and China had approximately a mere 400 uses of the hashtag. It was not until January of 2018, where the movement took off in Kenya, China and Pakistan. It took off in Kenya because the #MeToo movement inspired women in Kenya to protest and demand that the Kenyatta National Hospital staff be criminally investigated due to the large number of rape, sexual harassment and sexual violence reports that have taken place in the hospital. It took off in China because a former student of Beihang University posted her story of assault online, thus resulting in the removal of that professor who was also the Vice President of the graduate school. In addition, the movement took off in Pakistan after the public awareness of a rape/murder of a seven-year-old girl names Zainab Ansari. This caused public outrage.

In other industries, companies are working to restructure their sexual harassment policies to make women more comfortable in the workplace. In the service industry, specifically, several states are banning the subminimum wage, so that workers (primarily women) do not have to put up with sexual harassment just to gain an income. Additionally, industries are making sexual harassment trainings more effective and necessary so that sexual misconduct is prevented.

(https://www.fastcompany.com/40516442/where-will-2018-take-the-metoo-move...)

(https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/world/metoo-hashtag-global-movement/index...)

Campaigns:

The MeToo group works to bring to attention the different institutions that allow sexual harassment to flourish. By exposing these institutions, the groups hopes that sexual harassment, particularly in the workplace, is diminished.

Ideological Composition:

This network is composed of all types of feminists. Originally, Tarana Burke catered toward low-income black and brown girls. As the network grew, it started to include women of all races, LGBTQ+, and even some men. This network is composed mostly of women with multiple identities, so intersectional feminism has a big influence on this network of groups. Because most women have multiple identities, they are able to show how they are marginalized in different ways, and they are able to bring perspectives to the conversation of sexual harassment.

Communication Strategy:

Because this is not a formally organized group, much of their communication occurs through social media and mass media. Local organizers of marches/rallies will have meetings to discuss strategies. Tarana Burke and her personal organizations use face-to-face communication to lobby for policy change in Congress and in the workplace.

Created New Spaces:

This group has created both physical and imaginary spaces. First, through the work of the activists, women's centers have been created where sexual assault survivors may go and get the resources they need to heal. Second, through the use of social media, women can find support groups and create connections with other women who have had similar experiences and can share their stories.

Here are some links to some women's centers that have received an increase in the number of women coming for their services post-#MeToo: https://www.ywca.org; crisis centers such as https://www.crisiscenterinc.org; https://www.rainn.org; and many other local rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and women's organizations

Incorporated Cultural Forms:

A prominent cultural form this group has taken is through music. Kesha, a musician and sexual assualt survivor herself, performed her song "Praying" at the 2018 Grammys, alongside other activists for #MeToo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buM8OErfvu0

Oppositional Forces:

There is no one group that is in opposition to this group. Rather, there are people with certain ideologies that are in opposition with the ideas of this group. Specifically, those involved in strong patriarchal institutions are in opposition of this group. Additionally, some groups are arguing that sexual harassment against men is not being included in the conversation, so "men's rights" are being silenced. Here are a couple articles that share opposing viewpoints on #MeToo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/golden-globes-metoo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/movies/catherine-deneuve-and-others-d...

Media Artifacts:

Women who are survivors of sexual harassment and supporters of #MeToo protest during a march in Hollywood, California on November 12, 2017. Photographer: Mark Ralstone https://anith.com/metoo-movement-marches-on-hollywood-against-sexual-assault-and-harassment/

MeToo members are marching to bring attention to sexual harassment in the workplace (Hollywood, California). Through this march, they hope to address this issue to change sexual harassment policies in the workplace, so that women are comfortable in their respective workplaces again. Photographer: Chelsea Guglielmino https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/8031404/metoo-take-back-the-workplace-marches-storm-hollywood

Time Magazine announced that for their Person of the Year, it would not be one single person. Rather, they brought together a series of women, who they named the "Silence Breakers" to be Time's 2017 Person of the Year. These women are the leaders of the movements that has addressed sexual harassment issues. Photographer: Billy and Hells http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/

This is a representation of the global reach of #MeToo from October 16th-November 6th, 2017. Larger circles represent more uses of the #MeToo hashtag. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/world/metoo-hashtag-global-movement/index.html. Information was gathered from Crimson Hexagon's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter data.

These different hashtags represent some of the linguistic and cultural variations of the #MeToo movement around the world. The second hashtag represents the Saudi Arabian adaptation, the third hashtag represents Spain, Mexico and Colombia's variation, the fourth hashtag represents the French version, the fifth hashtag represents the Israeli version, and lastly, the sixth hashtag represents the Italian variation of the movement.

Social Movements - grassroots network

#MeToo