#MeToo Vanguards Add Their Voices to the #WhyIDidntReport Movement
On October 15, 2017, American actress and activist Alyssa Milano sent a simple message out onto the Internet: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” It was this gesture, which brought forth thousands of replies, that put the #MeToo movement in the mainstream. Now, just under a year later, Milano is lending her voice to another hashtag: #WhyIDidntReport.
A lot of change has been made around conversations about sexual harassment and assault as #MeToo has gained momentum. A glance at the President Donald Trump’s Twitter page, however, will tell you that we still have a long way to go. “I have no doubt,” he wrote last Thursday morning, “that if the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement by either her or loving parents.”
Here, the President is responding to Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. And, in direct response to this tweet, survivors of sexual assault are tweeting thoughts of their own: with #WhyIDidntReport, people are sharing the reasons why they didn’t come forward with their assault stories sooner.