I watched with both amazement and sadness as thousands of women posted “Me Too” on their Facebook feeds last night. I hopped over to Twitter and saw the same happening there. It took me a few hours to add my voice to the trending Me Too hashtag but, I did and for the first time in my life felt understand and validated.
By the end of the night, there were over 7 million “Me Too” posts on Facebook. What does that tell us? Women, most of us, have, at one or many times in our lives been the victim of sexual abuse or harassment. In what world is that acceptable?!?!
We’ve come a long way baby just not far enough yet. We’ve found our voices when it comes to marriage and careers. We know our worth and when to say goodbye to a husband who isn’t respecting that worth. For some reason, though, men are still getting away with objectifying us sexually.
If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017
The power of #MeToo is that it took something that women have long kept quiet about and transformed it into a movement. Unlike many kinds of social-media activism, it wasn’t a call to action or the beginning of a campaign, culminating in a series of protests and speeches and events. It was simply an attempt to get people to understand the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in society. To get women, and men, to raise their hands without fear of being shamed or victim blamed.
What I’ve thought about today is all the powerful divorced and single moms I’ve come into contact with, either in real time or online. Women, I know who have overcome emotional and financial devastation at the hands of a man. I have faith in you to no longer keep quiet about sexual assault and harassment. I also want you to know that DivorcedMoms is about supporting women. We’re here to support women and any issue they deal with.
Decades ago women were tied to unhappy marriages and abusive husbands. Today we aren’t. We no longer have to be subjected to men reducing us to sexual objects to do with or treat as they please either. So, I hope you will feel confident in saying, “NO, NOT ME, NOT ANY WOMAN” next time a man grabs, gropes, makes lewd comments to you, catcalls and makes you feel you are nothing more than an object meant for a man’s sexual pleasure.
If we learned anything from Sunday night and #MeToo, it’s that we aren’t alone. If we need support you’ll find it easy to find another woman who has experienced the same degradation. Reach out!
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