Why Everyone Is Posting 'Me Too' on Facebook
Because talking about sexual assault is important.
Two words aimed at raising awareness around the sexual harassment and assault experienced by women are trending on Facebook and Twitter right now: Me too.
Used as a hashtag and as an intro to posts on Facebook, the “Me too” momentum follows a series of allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. In the UK, the Metropolitan Police are investigating five cases of sexual assault against three women in London in the late 1980s, 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2015. The NYPD is also investigating claims that include a 2004 incident.
Alyssa Milano, an American actor famed for her role in the TV show Charmed, sparked the hashtag via her Twitter account on Sunday. Milano, who has over 3 million followers, went viral with her suggestion that women should reply “Me too” if they’ve ever been sexually harassed or assaulted.
Suggested by a friend: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
At the time of writing, her tweet had over 30,000 replies, as well as over 10,000 retweets and nearly 30,000 likes. Numerous people have come forward in solidarity.
Replies to Milano's tweet.
“Me too,” said Javier Muñoz, an actor who starred in Hamilton. “I don’t know if means anything coming from a gay man but it’s happened. Multiple times.”
“Don’t think I know a single woman who hasn’t been sexually harassed at work, school, or on the street (most of us have experienced all 3),” said Twitter user Lily S. Axelrod.
“20+ years working in construction,” said Twitter user Stacey Mountain. “Constantly told that harassment should be expected because I was working with a bunch of “men.”
