#MeToo Twitter Hashtag successfully got on the top trend nationwide on 15 October 2017, on Sunday. Both men and women participated and responded to the MeToo Hashtag launched by American actress Alyssa Jayne Milano aka Alyssa Milano.
As of Monday afternoon, #MeToo hashtag had been tweeted nearly half a million times, and more than 600,000 openly talked about it on Facebook too. Get to know more about this trend:
#MeToo hashtag Goes Viral; People's Reaction Over #MeToo
Thousands of stories regarding the sexual abuse and harassment allegations popped out in the social media on Sunday and Monday after Milano launched #MeToo hashtag including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Kelly Lisenbee, a surgical technician in Oklahoma City, checked Facebook on Sunday night saw the #MeToo hashtag trending in the facebook and saw her friends openly talking about the sexual harassment and assaults.
She then updated "Me too’ as a status; we might give men a sense of the magnitude of the problem. #MeToo before going to bed. Later, she woke up in around 2 a.m and she openly updated the post about how she was assaulted as a teenager.
“I didn’t know he was going to forcibly kiss me,”
“I didn’t know he was going to put his hand in my jeans. . . I didn’t know that after I pushed him away and told him no that he was going to tell all his buddies that it happened anyway.”
In one of the interview, Lisenbee said that she now feels glad for talking about it. She hopes that this will save the next generation of women.
Just like her, several stories regarding the abuse and harassment exploded across social media. People shared stories of being victims of bosses, sexual assault, and catcalls from strangers. Celebrities like Alyssa Milano, Debra Missing, and Rosario Dawson first amplified the hashtag on Sunday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/919668578357452800
It is not the first time women have been talking about their mistreatment online. Before #MeToo was launched, there were several trends like #MyHarveyWeinstein, #YokOkSis, #WhatWereYouWearing, and #SurvivorPrivilege.
These hashtags were all for those women who experienced sexual harassment or assault to reveal their story.
Wagatwe Wanjuki created #SurvivorPrivilege hashtag a few years ago said that she respects that many of her friends feel solidarity with the new campaign but "I just knew it wouldn’t be empowering for me."
So, she decided that she will not say "me too." In explanation, she said:
I know, deep down, it won’t do anything. Men who need a certain threshold of survivors coming forward to ‘get it’ will never get it.
Over 23k people shared Wanjuki's post.
It's true that the "#MeToo" hashtag succeeded but do you think this trend will change anything?
Lisenbee claims that she observes the change in her online communities and among the women, she knows where the topics like sexual harassment and allegation are openly discussed.