In 2017 it went around the world. The movement Me Too became a viral and global phenomenon that brought together complaints from thousands of women against sexual violence, especially in the work environment. At the epicenter of all this phenomenon a single name: Harvey Weinstein.
Seven years after the movement became popular, the New York Court of Appeals has decided to annul one of the sentences of the former American film producerwhich was sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison for criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. Although she was not the only one, Weinstein is also serving 16 years in prison for similar crimes, although more than 80 women have accused the Miramax founder of abuse and rape.
All a setback for the movement which was born seven years ago as a result of the testimonies of its victims. On October 15, 2017, the actress and activist Alyssa Milano was the precursor of the hashtag #metoo, with which he wanted to raise awareness about the scourge that the film sector was experiencing. “If you have been sexually harassed or assaulted, write #metoo as a response to this tweet,” the one who was the protagonist of haunted encouraging the use of hashtag. And it worked. The expression was used more than 200,000 times on October 15 and tweeted more than 500,000 times the next day.
But Me Too He had not been born at that time, nor would he stay there. The expression saw the light in the already extinct myspace in 2006 from the hand of the social activist Tarana Burkewhich tried to promote the empowerment through empathy among racialized women who had been sexually abused. In the publications that Milano made on Twitter years later she echoed Burke and explained to her followers where the word came from.
The spark that ignited the expression brought together by Burke was an experience in 1996, when the activist, who worked in a camp for girls, heard the testimony of abuse of one of them by a family member and did not know how to answer it. “I should have told him ‘me too,'” Burke later explained. This experience also led Burke to found the organization Just Be Inc.
Back to 2017, he Me Too expanded to other sectors such as music, politics or science, where the hashtag was also used to report abuse and aggression. Thousands of men, women and children participated in Hollywood in the Take Back the Workplace March and at the #MeToo Survivors March to protest sexual abuse. Through expression, the actress Uma Thurman He also took the step of confessing that he had suffered abuse from Weinstein.
Bill Cosby or Kevin Spacey
A year later, in 2018, he was born Time’s Up, a collective made up of more than 300 actresses who created a fund in Hollywood to Help women from any social stratum against sexual harassment. Among the signatories of support for this fund are actresses such as Eva Longoria, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone and Reese witherspoon.
Since then the complaints have not stopped occurring. Actors like Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey or Louis C.K. or politicians like Roy Moore, Al Franken or Eric Schneiderman They were accused and suffered to a greater or lesser extent the impact, losing their jobs or, as in the case of Cosby, being convicted.
Thus, coming from the American epicenter of cinema, the movement Me Too became the watchword of female victims all over the world and causing a global mobilizationl with demonstrations in all cities. Also what has later been called cyberfeminism.
Hashtag Feminism
Feminist activism on social networks became a reality and was called Hashtag Feminism, where women share their experiences. These keywords, such as #metoo, thus favor the construction of organized stories in which the structural inequality of women is pointed out.
Even the European Parliament held a session directly in response to the campaign, after which reports of abuse increased within the organization and in the offices of the European Union in Brussels.
In Spain, several Spanish actresses recognized In a report the existence of sexual harassment in Spanish cinema, among them Maru Valdivieso, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Carla Hidalgo and Ana Gracia. The actress, screenwriter and film director Leticia Dolera and Bárbara Rey also explained cases of harassment.
These days, in addition, sexual violence has once again jumped into the cultural world due to the 14 complaints against theater director Ramón Paso.
