Response to the #MeToo Movement

This blog post is in response to the need of four journal entries. This response is related to objective 6 of the syllabus, "Demonstrate awareness of threshold concepts that inform the course (writing as inquiry, as social responsibility, as disciplinary practice, and as a research practice)". This journal relates to this objective because I viewed the #metoo movement as one that related to kairos, one that needed to be discussed, and lead to me doing extended research to fully understand what it was about. I had a lot of questions about this movement before I wrote this journal entry and wanted to make sure that I understood what it was about.

#MeToo is a campaign created by Tarana Burke to strike a conversation about sexual assault. This campaign was created over a decade ago but didn't become popular until it was used again after 60 women in the entertainment industry came out with assault allegations against a famous producer named Harvey Weinstein. Last Sunday, Charmed actress Alyssa Milano shared a tweet asking for women who've been assaulted in their lives to share a tweet with the hashtag to bring awareness to the realities of sexual assault and it's many shapes, forms, and victims. By the next morning, there were over 35K responses from women and men on Twitter using the hashtag from the US, UK, and other countries to share their story. The viral response to this hashtag allowed others to see that they weren't alone but was problematic because it showed how common it was in our world to be sexually harassed and/or sexually assaulted. Another issue with this hashtag would be that victims had to dig up their past to prove to people once again that sexual assault is a horrible thing. Victims who didn't participate in the movement were faced with triggers throughout their timeline from other people who've been in their shoes.

The intended audience for this movement would be individuals who have been sexually assaulted. There are men and women who have been raped and have yet to come to terms with their attack. They may feel as if they’re alone and lost about what they should do. This movement was intended to show the world that there are more sexual assault survivors than we thought. It’s not only something that happens in America, but an occurrence that happens all over the world and doesn’t have a specific victim description. I believe that this movement was effective because while it went viral and caught the eyes of Twitter users, it also made its way on the news and sparked attention amongst non-Twitter users.

This movement took off on social media because of who shared the tweet: Alyssa Milano. Milano is a well-known celebrity with a huge fan base. There are articles that credit Milano for the hashtag without knowing that it was Tarana Burke who created it. Since Burke is not as famous of Milano, her campaign was hidden for decades and for people to not credit her for the creation of the movement is extremely disrespectful. Milano's kairotic response to the allegations against a man who harmed a very close friend of her also contributed to the success of the movement as well as it being it on Twitter, a social media platform used by millions of people across the world.

#metoo #metoomovement #kairos #taranaburke