When #METOO went viral last October, no one could have predicted how many women and men would add their voices to what has become the name of a movement.
After very public allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful, highly-visible men, Alyssa Milano Tweeted, "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too.' we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem."
But since that movement has exploded, so, too, has resistance – among men and women. Some say they don’t understand what happened to due process or they don’t know what is True North when determining the difference between flirtation and harassment. Some say they’re terrified of which powerful male will be the next to take a public fall.
In a National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey from the Centers For Disease Control, one in two women and one in five men report having experienced sexual violence.
The Pew Research Center finds a majority of Americans agree with the idea that men are getting away with sexual harassment and women are not being believed. But a majority of Americans also say the movement has made navigating work male-female relationships more difficult.
Our goal on this edition of CoastLine is to explore what some call a spectrum of ME TOO moments and why others oppose the notion of arranging traumatic personal events according to degrees. We also explore the evolving conversation surrounding harassment, sexual violence, and the cultural conditioning that some experts say contributes to the objectification of women – which leads to harassment and violence.
Guests:
Amy Feath, Executive Director, Carousel Center, Inc; past Crisis Intervention Services Director for the Rape Crisis Center serving both Brunswick and New Hanover counties; former Member Services Director and Campus Rape Prevention Coordinator at the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Chadwick Roberts, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He specializes in cultural and gender studies and feminist theory.
http://uncw.academia.edu/ChadwickRoberts
Resources:
North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Rape Crisis Center at Coastal Horizons
http://www.supportrcc.org/index.html
Carousel Center, Inc. for children who have been abused:
