Local gender equality advocates say the viral #MeToo movement demonstrates how widespread sexual harassment and abuse is.
#MeToo is an online social media movement that began as a result of the allegations surrounding Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. As more actresses came forward to share their stories of abuse and harassment, social media users began using the hashtag to demonstrate how many women have been victimized.
So far, the hashtag has been used at least 500,000 times.
“We still are unaware at how prevalent sexual violence is, and it’ll take a hashtag like this to understand what the magnitude is,” says Robyn Ocean, Trent University’s sexual violence prevention and peer support coordinator.
But Lisa Clarke, who works at the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, says she’s not surprised to hear about the online trend.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment based on gender, it’s endemic in the workplace,” said Clarke.
Clarke says the hashtag is a step in the right direction. It’s her hope that it will motivate people to address the issue beyond a social media platform.
At the very least, she says, people are talking about the issue.
“And when that happens, people start to critically think about it, they start to ask themselves, ‘what can I do?’ and that’s a really encouraging point.”
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