#MeToo

The ‘Me Too’ movement was founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to support survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color. In October 2017, #MeToo went viral in response to accounts of sexual abuse by film producer Harvey Weinstein.

“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,” tweeted actor Alyssa Milano. Other celebrities then followed with similar experiences to Milano including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence and Uma Thurman.

Sophia Huang Xueqin Won Awards for Her #MeToo Reporting. Today, Her Fate Remains a Mystery.

Huang (Sophia) Xueqin’s reporting sparked a wave of #MeToo allegations against various high-ranking media personalities and professors in China. She described the censorship she faced as “severe.” The extreme backlash Huang faced for her reporting included an onslaught of threats, bullying on her personal pages, and intimidation from authorities—eventually leading to her arrest in September 2021.

As of this month, Huang has been jailed and almost entirely cut off from her friends, family and advocacy groups for over 750 days.

Women Are Hip-Hop’s Culture Bearers: The Ms. Q&A With Elaine Richardson and Kyra Gaunt

Elaine Richardson—or Dr. E—a professor of literacy studies at the Ohio State University, founded the Hip-Hop Literacies Conference. Kyra Gaunt, an assistant professor of music and women’s, gender and sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is the author of the groundbreaking The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop (2006). She is currently writing a book on the impact of YouTube and music technologies on the sexualization of young Black girls. Richardson and Gaunt spoke with Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson to discuss the upcoming 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

(This series is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)

The Incarcerated Woman Who Wishes #MeToo Had Arrived Earlier

Celeste Blair landed in prison after a series of abusive relationships. She hopes the #MeToo movement saves younger women from a similar fate.

“They literally degraded me to the point that I felt like I was a convict and nothing more. … I’m hoping my granddaughter and my nieces are living in this new world where a girl has a lot more say.”

Football Legend Jim Brown’s Legacy Includes Serial Abuse of Women

When football legend and civil rights icon Jim Brown died at 87 years old on May 18, commentary about his life and legacy downplayed his long history of violence against women.

One of the extraordinary ironies of Brown’s life is that he was a Black man who, in the face of stinging racism, demanded to be treated as a full human being who was “not going to be pushed around or disrespected.” But he allegedly did just that, and worse, to many Black women.

Are You There, God? My Nude Photos Are All Over the Internet.

Slut-shaming has become more rampant and acceptable than ever before in our surveillance-saturated culture. Lacking privacy, we are denied dignity.

By normalizing the behavior of pre-adolescent girls obsessed with sexuality that they don’t yet comprehend, Are You There God? is an excellent reminder that girls—like all of us—need space to act foolishly, sometimes cruelly and then grow up—without being treated like a sexual object and without the whole world knowing all about it.

Welfare Is a Human Right: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty With Annelise Orleck

In her book, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty, Annelise Orleck not only shares the history of Clark County Welfare Right Organization’s (CCWRO) ascent and activism but also provides an insightful guide to community organizing.

“I loved the CCWRO’s insistence that poor women are experts on poverty and can run their own programs better than so-called professionals. And they did! … They demanded to know why a state that took tax revenue from gambling and prostitution was considered morally acceptable, but mothers trying to feed their kids were called cheaters. They were fearless.”

#EmbraceEquity and Continue to Fight for the ERA

The first recorded “Woman’s Day” was observed across the United States on Feb. 28, 1909. The following year, according to the International Women’s Day history timeline, “more than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.”

I think we can all agree that it’s more than a little frustrating that more than a century later, women across the world are still demanding equality in many of the same areas. Here in the United States, the Equal Rights Amendment—first drafted and introduced in Congress in 1923!—still hasn’t been formally published as the law of the land.

California’s Latest Legal Change Reduces a Significant Barrier to Suing Rapists

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California prides itself in having many survivor-friendly laws and in 2019 announced its much-hyped 10-year statute of limitations for civil remedies for adult survivors of sexual assault. Too many survivors have not benefited from this 2019 law (CCP 340.16).

But, as of Jan. 1, 2023, CCP 340.16 clearly outlines that the 10-year statute of limitations applies retroactively to sexual assaults that occurred before the statute was first enacted on Jan. 1, 2019. To rectify prior confusion, the amended statute provides for a three-year window, until Dec. 31, 2025, wherein survivors can file their civil claims for sexual assaults that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

Combating K-12 Sexual Harassment and Violence: How Far Have We Come?

Seven years ago, two parents whose child was sexually assaulted on a high school field trip created the nonprofit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS) after demanding accountability from the Seattle school district. In the website’s inaugural blog, Fatima Goss Graves, now president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, wrote: “If we do not bring a serious focus to the problem of sexual harassment and assault in elementary and secondary schools, it will be nearly impossible to make real progress at any other level of education.”

In the last decade, when it comes to stopping sexual harassment and assault in elementary and secondary schools, how far have we come?