Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”

Twitter and Facebook exploded with responses. She tweeted in hopes that persons would grasp ‘the magnitude of the problem’ after the unfolding revelation of Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior towards women.

Within 24 hours, there were 12 million Facebook posts and over a million tweets with the ‘MeToo’ hashtag. The numbers continue to grow. I’m sure every person online in North America knows someone who posted ‘MeToo.’

A couple days later, I posted #MeToo on my Facebook page. I struggled to push the ‘post’ button. I felt vulnerable. Pushing that button reminded me of all the secret and unnamed experiences in my own stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault. I had learned early that neither male relatives nor male leaders in the church were safe. I would rather sit on a bus with a stranger than with certain relatives or with some Christian leaders.

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