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Background of the Me Too Movement

#MeToo movement has been defined as a social movement that advocates for women who survived sexual violence to speak out about their experience. The movement was started by sexual harassment survivor and activist, Tarana Burke, in 2006 on Myspace(11). Tarana Burke originally started the #MeToo movement to advocate for women of color who have been victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment.  Later on, Alyssa Milano helped the movement by spreading the movement on social media (Twitter) on October 15, 2017, in a tweet, “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"(11).  The post caught the attention of popular celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, Sheryl Crow, Christina Perri, and Lady Gaga. As the movement gained momentum, Tanana Burke opened it up to include all genders and races. 

SEXUAL ASSAULT STATISTICS

81% of women have experienced some form of sexual assault/harassment

43% of men have experienced some form of sexual assault/harassment

only 5% of rape allegations turn out to be false

0.07% of assailants are actually convicted of rape

89% of victims report some level of distress after the incident (PTSD, injury, etc.)

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