Hecate/ The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy, William Blake (1757-1827)
#metoo A/K/A The Harvey Movement. Started by actor Alyssa Milano.
USA Today reported today in addition the following:
Gretchen Carlson has been credited with cracking the secretive world of workplace sexual harassment thanks to her landmark case against Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.
But she’s convinced the scathing allegations of assault and harassment leveled against Harvey Weinstein published by The New York Times and The New Yorker, and the tidal wave of women coming forward with similar stories in the last week and a half, is the real turning point.
“What we’re seeing happening now with the Harvey Weinstein revelations, to me this is the watershed moment,” she told USA TODAY. “This is the tipping point I’ve been working so hard for over the last 15 months. People are finally saying ‘enough.'”
A reporter friend of mine today asked the following as she was researching her story:
Does the #metoo make you feel more empowered? Do you think this is a here today/ gone tomorrow story?
Sexual Harassment is not new – does the fact it’s a Hollywood producer and accusers are stars give the issue more clarity- more weight that now is the time for discussion?
Sigh. Sexual harassment and sexual assault are not new. Just #metoo is new. It is still so hard for victims of either sexual harassment or sexual assault to report either. No matter what victims seem to get victimized again in the process. And that is total sad reality, isn’t it?
Also to consider are the women who cry wolf in these situations for whatever twisted motivation they might have. Yes, seriously, and I know of more than one instance over my lifetime. And for every person who cries wolf, that makes it all the harder for women who have been victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
So according to the media this #metoo has been a crazy trigger for women to talk about this. It’s truly all over social media, pick your platform.
PBS News Hour: Thousands share stories of sexual abuse with #MeToo after Weinstein allegations
What did I post on my own timeline?
It’s the truth. When I think of sexual assault and sexual harassment, I think of it in terms of which women do I know who hasn’t experienced some form of either. And we, the everyday women in this country, will still be here long after the bright lights of Hollywood have moved onto the next cause célèbre.
And let us not forget what President Trump and Betsy De Vos have cooked up for Title IX, shall we? Good little foot soldiers of the current “republic” I am sure are claiming “fake news” but is US New and World Report really “fake news”?
Here is what the US News and World Report said:
Title IX was originally enacted in 1972 to prevent discrimination in schools based on sex, but has since expanded to cover issues relating to sexual assault. No longer for just equality, it requires educational institutions that receive federal funding to have a procedure in place for handling complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and violence.
The law was reshaped during the Obama administration in an effort to improve how colleges handle sexual assaults, but DeVos told The Associated Press the system “is not working right and well for anyone.”
So when I posted #MeToo did I mean me too?
Yes.
For me, it was literally decades ago. No one at this point needs the gory details. It accomplishes nothing. It happened and that was bad enough.
For years I denied to myself what happened and alternately blamed myself for what happened.
As I grew up from this thing I experienced, I came in contact with other women who themselves had been victims of either sexual harassment or sexual assault and in many cases were then victimized by the system. I also knew of women who cried wolf and almost tanked the lives of men who had not been sexual predators.
I did not talk about it, I did not tell anyone when it actually happened.
Eventually because a light bulb went off in my head, I did deal with it. I finally accepted what happened was not my fault, and quite honestly I worked through it with a therapist. I knew if I did not I would become as screwed up as many women I had encountered who never did anything about it even just for their sanity.
But sociologically speaking, it’s still kind of a dirty little secret isn’t it? This is a topic that makes people uncomfortable, yet it happened every single day. We are now as women told to speak up, but if you are just a regular person what happens? Do people magically descend from the ceiling with flaming swords to defend your honor?
Hardly.
It’s hard enough to go to anyone and talk about this, but still today, doesn’t it seem nearly impossible to get action taken? We’ve all read the horror stories of when rape victims take things to court. And with sexual harassment in the workplace as a woman you get to lose lots and lots of sleep over taking action, or sucking it up and moving on so you don’t taint your career with reporting something, don’t you?
Why are the victims victimized twice?
There are women I know who will never, ever get over what happened to them. And that is even with people supporting them and encouraging them to at least get therapy. And it has screwed with their lives incredibly.
Yes, we need to stand up and say #MeToo but we need to persist so the every day non-Hollywood girls and women are helped. We need to remember the ordinary women who stand in the shadows waiting for help. The women who get so lost inside their own heads on this that it affects their lives, their children’s lives, truly the lives of everyone who cares about them.
Sexual assault and sexual harassment are as old as time. We all need to do better.
Thanks for stopping by.
Unfortunately #metoo is another #thistooshallpass We have our predator-in-chief as living proof that things have not changed. Too many people still give this sort of behavior a pass. It is wrong that we get victimized twice if we dare to come forward. I have resigned myself to be one of those people who just doesn’t do well in the mainstream, because I will no longer keep my mouth shut for any abusive behavior- in the workplace, on the street, or any place I see it. It’s too steep a price for my emotional and physical health to ignore it. Apathy, silence, and other forms of withdrawal from society- like not voting- contribute to the passive-aggression against our best interests.