Women are sharing stories of sexual assault and harassment on social media with the hashtag #MeToo to show that they too, share the same fight.
This isn’t the first hashtag to go viral referring to women and the struggle they have to deal with just because they are women in a misogynist world.
“I think that it takes a lot of courage for a woman to post their #MeToo story on social media. I think saying it to someone leaves an impact on just one person versus sharing it on social media you have the opportunity to share it with numerous people. Not everyone is willing to share their story on social media and for those who do I think it has done its job because it has created such a powerful movement,” said Delta College student Sol Salazar.
In 2012, we had #everydaysexism which brought light to sexism and assault that women deal with everyday just by walking to work.
The hashtag #MeToo came from a tweet from actress Alyssa Milano where she tweeted: “If you’ve been sexually assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”
It has since evolved into women using it as a hashtag to let other women know they are not alone.
#MeToo has become something that let’s women get their story out.
For those who do believe that sexual harassment and assault do happen more frequently than we would like to tell ourselves.
This shows how many women do have to go on with their life with this looming over their day every single day.
“I feel like this is a great outlet for women to share with each other, it’s even more important that these women are actually being believed going up against these in power men. Women have been told time and time again by the public to metaphorically ‘stay in the kitchen’ no matter how much we think we have progressed as a society,” said Delta College student Maribel Montoya.
Celebrities have been speaking out, just recently with the Ex-U.S national gymnast team’s doctor Larry Nassar.
With superstars like Simone Biles and Aly Raisman coming out against him telling their stories about how he took advantage of his power and sexually abused members of the team.
Raisman was one of the women that shared her story with the #MeToo and gave a powerful speech in front of Nassar.
Raisman told Nassar in front of everyone in court: “Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing.”