The hashtag ‘Me Too’ is being used on social media to show the widespread sexual harassment and abuse faced by women. The campaign is the brainchild of Charmed star Alyssa Milano.
If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017
Milano’s tweet has received over 30,000 replies, and the hashtag itself has begun to trend online, prompting sexual abuse survivors (both men and women) to share their experiences.
Singer Chinmayi added her voice to the growing movement by tweeting:
The #MeToo hashtag is heartbreaking. And as real as it gets. I dont know one woman who hasnt been groped / leched at / sexual assaulted in some way. I also have friends, grown men now, who have been raped by older men.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 16, 2017
The singer added that men found it ‘tougher’ to open up about being sexually abused. She said that it is just as important to educate young boys about abuse.
If it is difficult for a woman to express she has been sexually violated in some way, it is tougher for the men. People dont take as much care to educate young boys who are at as much risk as girls. They grow up with scars that never heal. #MeToo
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 16, 2017
Chinmayi also opened up about being sexually harassed when she was a child and of the barrage of hate tweets and messages she receives on social media.
To being groped while I was sleeping at age 8 by ‘a man of God’, to tweets, messages and phone calls that describe graphic rape to someone who ‘got even’ just because I was good at my job by slut shaming me…. #MeToo
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 16, 2017
Speak up women. And I wish there is support for men that undergo sexual assault as well. There is a crying need. Teach your girls. And please teach your boys as well. #MeToo
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 16, 2017
Earlier this month, Chinmayi joined the #WomenBoycottTwitter movement. This was done in protest against Twitter’s decision to deactivate Rose McGowan’s account.
I am in.
Bye till tomorrow. #WomenBoycottTwitter
Twitter does NOTHING to against gender based violence. pic.twitter.com/THQuXoRUGy— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 13, 2017
Here are some celebrities who have joined the #MeToo campaign:
Me too https://t.co/ScX67Kmmiy
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) October 15, 2017
#MeToo – Crowded tram at Disney, sat a row behind my family. Man kept his hand on my thigh the whole ride, stroking the fine hair there. His friend looked on. Think I was 11 but scared to confirm dates of that trip with my mom, because I never told anyone. Us too. All of us.
— Allison Tolman (@Allison_Tolman) October 16, 2017
To all the women sharing your stories. You are not alone and we see you. #MeToo
— Suki Waterhouse (@sukiwaterhouse) October 16, 2017
In the wake of the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, we revisit this piece by acclaimed playwright Eve Ensler and author of The Vagina Monologues in Huffington Post where she writes that she’s the over rape culture, over women who’re forced to stay silent about rape and a society that enables the accused to walk free.
I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.
I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.
A D V E R T I S E M E N TI am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it’s their fault or they did something to make it happen.
I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime — the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.
No women, no future, duh.
Read the full post here.
