Me Too-Part One-The Movement

Part One: “Me Too”-The Movement

Trigger Warning: Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Assault, Rape

It has been an incredible year for women around the world. When the United States had the chance of electing the first woman to the office of President of the United States, the Electoral College instead elected a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 21 women.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-running-list-of-the-women-whove-accused-donald-trump-of-sexual-misconduct_us_57ffae1fe4b0162c043a7212

Since our current President’s inauguration, there have been two Women’s Marches around the country. It was a tremendous success, with marches in several cities around the country and around the world.

http://mashable.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-aerial-photographs-video/#70YH45nWEOqW

After the Women’s March last January, a new social media campaign took wing in 2017, called “Me Too.” Women in the entertainment industry began to come forward and tell their stories of sexual harassment, rape, and sexual misconduct. As more men were being accused of these deeds, reports of victims emboldened other victims to come forward and share their stories. As the number of women accusers grew, men who had these experiences as well also began to come forward.

While last year’s start of the “Me Too” hashtag was enacted by an actress on social media, it was created eleven years ago by Tarana Burke as a way of uniting survivors of sexual abuse. She survived sexual abuse in her youth and now works as the Senior Director of the Girls for Gender Equity organization. She wrote the following statement about the goals for the year 2018:

“Our goal in 2018 is to reframe and expand the global conversation around sexual violence to speak the needs of a broader spectrum of survivors. Young people, queer, trans, and disabled folks, Black women and girls, and all communities of color. We want perpetrators to be held accountable and we want strategies implemented to sustain long term, systemic change. My deepest desire in 2018 is to continue to grow a global community that provides a safe space for survivors to heal."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html

https://twitter.com/taranaburke?lang=en

http://www.ggenyc.org/

According to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, or “R.A.I.N.N.”, out of every 1,000 rapes, only 310 are reported to the police.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

Many sexual assaults go unreported, for a myriad of reasons. One such reason is the fear that they would not be believed. This is a common tale in the “Me Too” movement. Men and women come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, and there is profound disbelief.

A perfect example of this would be in the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. He is an actor, comedian, philanthropist, and education advocate. He starred in “The Electric Company” and “Picture Pages”, both reading initiative television programs in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s he had how own show on television, “The Cosby Show”, in which he played one of the most beloved fathers in television history.

The first accusation about Bill Cosby was made publicly in 2014. Many in the public did not believe the woman who came forward. The perception was that Bill Cosby was not capable of such behavior. He’s devoted his life to the cause of education for more than forty years. However, since the initial accusation, more accusers have bravely come forward to tell their tales of survival. To date Bill Cosby has had 60 women accuse him of sexual assault.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/three-years-and-60-accusers-later-bill-cosbys-trial-begins-but-only-one-woman-will-decide-his-fate/2017/05/20/a28a2342-3ae5-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.e07a6f65dea6

To be clear, there is a spectrum of sexual misconduct. An accidental groping or unfortunate hand placement is on one end of the spectrum, with rape and sexual assault being on the other.

Sexual misconduct can happen to anyone, regardless of religion, creed, color, sexual orientation or gender identity.

A recent study shows the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. National Public Radio shared the results of a recent survey, which found:

“…81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime….That includes verbal forms of sexual harassment, like being catcalled or whistled at or getting unwanted comments of a sexual nature. It also includes physical harassment, cyber harassment and sexual assaults.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/21/587671849/a-new-survey-finds-eighty-percent-of-women-have-experienced-sexual-harassment

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/resources/2018-national-sexual-abuse-report/

The Culture of Respect offers the following statistics from the LGBT+ community:

“64% of transgender people have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime. 1 in 8 lesbian women have been raped in their lifetime. Half of bisexual women have been raped in their lifetime. 40% of gay men and 47% of bisexual men experience sexual assault in their lifetimes. (National Institute of Justice, 1998)”

https://cultureofrespect.org/the-issue/statistics-at-a-glance/

The Women of Color Network reports:

“An estimated 29.1% of African American females are victimized by intimate partner violence in their lifetime (rape, physical assault or stalking).”

http://www.doj.state.or.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/women_of_color_network_facts_domestic_violence_2006.pdf

M. Yvonne Taylor shared a disturbing statistic in her article, regarding the age of sexual assault:

“According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 – 12.3 percent of women were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape or victimization and 27.8 percent of men were age 10 or younger.”

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-MeToo-can-be-for-men-too-12281653.php

Sexual harassment is a term that has an ambiguous meaning. The United Nations Women Watch offers the following examples of sexual harassment:

· Actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

· Unwanted pressure for sexual favors.

· Unwanted deliberate touching, leaning over, cornering, or pinching.

· Unwanted sexual looks or gestures.

· Unwanted letters, telephone calls, or materials of a sexual nature.

· Unwanted pressure for dates.

· Unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, remarks, or questions.

· Referring to an adult as a girl, hunk, doll, babe, or honey.

· Whistling at someone.

· Cat calls.

· Sexual comments.

· Turning work discussions to sexual topics.

· Sexual innuendos or stories.

· Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history.

· Personal questions about social or sexual life.

· Sexual comments about a person's clothing, anatomy, or looks.

· Kissing sounds, howling, and smacking lips.

· Telling lies or spreading rumors about a person's personal sex life.

· Neck massage.

· Touching an employee's clothing, hair, or body.

· Giving personal gifts.

· Hanging around a person.

· Hugging, kissing, patting, or stroking.

· Touching or rubbing oneself sexually around another person.

· Standing close or brushing up against a person.

· Looking a person up and down (elevator eyes).

· Staring at someone.

· Sexually suggestive signals.

· Facial expressions, winking, throwing kisses, or licking lips.

· Making sexual gestures with hands or through body movements.

VERBAL

· Referring to an adult as a girl, hunk, doll, babe, or honey

· Whistling at someone, cat calls

· Making sexual comments about a person's body

· Making sexual comments or innuendos

· Turning work discussions to sexual topics

· Telling sexual jokes or stories

· Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history

· Asking personal questions about social or sexual life

· Making kissing sounds, howling, and smacking lips

· Making sexual comments about a person's clothing, anatomy, or looks

· Repeatedly asking out a person who is not interested

· Telling lies or spreading rumors about a person's personal sex life

NON-VERBAL

· Looking a person up and down (Elevator eyes)

· Staring at someone

· Blocking a person's path

· Following the person

· Giving personal gifts

· Displaying sexually suggestive visuals

· Making sexual gestures with hands or through body movements

· Making facial expressions such as winking, throwing kisses, or licking lips

PHYSICAL

· Giving a massage around the neck or shoulders

· Touching the person's clothing, hair, or body

· Hugging, kissing, patting, or stroking

· Touching or rubbing oneself sexually around another person

· Standing close or brushing up against another person

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/whatissh.pdf

Within the workplace, sexual harassment has been common. Recently David Schwimmer, who played “Ross Geller” on the hit 90s TV show “Friends”, made a series of small films on the subject matter.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/26/upshot/sexual-harassment-script-react.html?mtrref=www.google.com

Here is one of the videos:

More videos on the topic can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQnHegT-awFsplQdVLCaKpA/videos

The “Me Too” movement on Twitter and social media continues to be a medium for men and women in the entertainment industry to bravely come forth to share their accounts of being abused, thus identifying themselves as a survivor of sexual assault.

Since the “Me Too” movement gained notoriety and more accusers came forward, the Times Up organization was been created to provide legal fees for men and women that want to prosecute their abusers.

“Powered by women, TIME’S UP addresses the systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace that have kept underrepresented groups from reaching their full potential. We partner with leading advocates for equality and safety to improve laws, employment agreements, and corporate policies; help change the face of corporate boardrooms and the C-suite; and enable more women and men to access our legal system to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

https://www.timesupnow.com/#ourmission-anchor

Often, when women come forward to report sexual assault, many are treated unjustly. Many women are asked what they were wearing when they were attacked. Many women are told they must take some share in the responsibility of what happened to them. The following video, by Tracy Ullman, is a spoof, pointing out the lunacy of such questioning. In the sketch, a man has just been robbed. Listen to the questions the man is asked:

To be clear, sexual assaults are never about what someone is wearing. To bring this point home, there is now an exhibit which displays the clothes people were wearing when they were attacked.

Change is happening, and happening fast. The “Me Too” hashtag has become a pivotal moment in this country. Or, as Lin-Manuel Miranda penned in his musical “Hamilton”:

“This is not a moment, it’s a movement.”

Time Magazine wrote:

“This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced.”

http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/

There have been a growing number of men who have resigned from their jobs or have been fired due to allegations of sexual misconduct. The following article lists 71 men:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/10/us/men-accused-sexual-misconduct-weinstein.html

The number of accused of sexual misconduct has grown since this article was written.

The publishers at Time magazine release a special magazine at the end of every year known as the Influential Person of the Year. Last year, 2017, the person chosen was in fact a collection of people, the Silence Breakers-the men and women who have shared their stories of sexual misconduct.

The cover of this special edition showed several women who have survived sexual misconduct. The designers of the cover made sure to leave a blank spot in the photograph, to symbolize all of the men and women yet to come forward with their stories of survival.

http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/

Change has happened and it continues to happen. Hollywood is starting over. Women around the world, in every field and profession, are changing the narrative.

If you have experienced sexual misconduct, you are not alone. There are resources listed below where you can find help. Reach out to someone, get yourself help.

Tomorrow I will post part 2 of this topic, my own personal “Me Too” story.

If you have yet to tell your story of survival, there is strength in numbers. You are not alone. There are many of us in the ranks of the movement. If you want to act on what happened, consider filing a police report.

Share your story of survival. There is strength in sharing the truth. You are not alone. Say it with men and women who have also survived.

Me too.