NORTHAMPTON — Following an October 2017 New York Times expose detailing decades worth of sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, two words dominated the internet: Me too.
The hashtag #MeToo instantly became a rallying cry for survivors of sexual harassment and assault, but the “Me Too” movement is one that began over a decade ago.
In 2006, Tarana Burke founded Just Be Inc., a youth organization that helps victims of sexual harassment and assault, and she originally started the Me Too campaign to connect survivors of sexual assault to the resources they need in order to heal.
“The Me Too movement has gotten incredible media hype,” Burke said Wednesday evening to a large crowd at John M. Greene Hall on the Smith College campus. “But hashtags are not movements.
“We’ve been walking around with these wounds for decades and decades, and now we have a moment to stand up and say this happened to me, too, but I also want to make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else,” Burke said.
Burke, however, isn’t dismissive of the power of a hashtag. She said it has “galvanized the whole world around this issue I feel so passionately about.”
Actress Alyssa Milano ignited the social media firestorm when she shared a friend’s suggestion for people to write “Me too” on Twitter in response to the Harvey Weinstein revelations. Within the first 24 hours, the hashtag was widely used across social media platforms in more than 12 million posts and reactions, according to The Associated Press.
While hashtags are fleeting, Burke is calling on people of all backgrounds in all places to end sexual violence of any kind.
“The Me Too movement is an international community of survivors, allies, and advocates working towards healing and action,” Burke said. “This is about the whole spectrum, whether talking about rape culture and language that creates an environment for violence, or people who literally can’t walk out of their house without fear of their bodies being attacked.”
Sexual abuse in regards to children, college campuses or in the military, “It all falls under this work, we all have parts to play,” Burke said.
Burke spent a portion of the evening discussing ways people can get involved in the Me Too movement. She said the first step to getting involved is to “look for the gaps” in a community in terms of organizations that need volunteers and resources.
“Or look around and see what’s not in your community and find other people who feel that way and start it,” Burke said. “Is there a place in your community where survivors can go if they need support to go to the hospital? Or women who deal with intimate partner violence who need shelter?”
Movements take time, strategy, vision and leadership, Burke said, and it will take the power of people in communities and institutions to “end sexual violence.”
During the second half of the event on Wednesday, Rachel Simmons, an author and leadership development specialist for Smith’s Wurtele Center for Leadership, helped facilitate the discussion by asking Burke questions she had received from Smith students.
The event was a dedication to Wurtele Center, which offers leadership courses, workshops, a speaker series and a multi-year program called the Wurtele Fellows. A $10 million gift from Margaret Wurtele, a Smith Class of 1967 alumna, helped establish the center in 2017.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com