%0 Journal Article
%T Understanding the 2017 ¡°Me Too¡± Movement¡¯s Timing
%A Camille Gibson
%A Colette B. Harris
%A Melanie Prudhomme
%A Serita Whiting
%A Shannon Davenport
%A Sherri Simmons-Horton
%A Tina Fowler
%J Humanity & Society
%@ 2372-9708
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0160597619832047
%X While persons may differ on the identified start of what evolved into the ¡°Me Too¡± movement of 2017, the media focus makes the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas saga of October 1991 a starting point for a slow cruise to a season of reckoning. This article explores the circumstances that led to a cataclysm where women have been believed and the alleged perpetrators have experienced consequences. These elements are a grassroots movement against sexual harassment across sectors; high-profile celebrity cases that attracted public attention; the use of a social media venue, the # MeToo, that facilitated the victims speaking publicly, from a safe distance from the harasser or abuser, no longer feeling compelled to silence for personal or career reasons; the election of a President (Trump) who was recorded jesting about engaging in sexual harassment; courageous investigative journalism in the face of threats from powerful persons; and President Obama¡¯s Title IX enhancements that put sexual assaults on college and universities in the news (and Betsy Devos¡¯s reversal of some of these initiatives). A final ingredient is the initial mistrial of Bill Cosby in 2017 (he has since been convicted of sexual assault in 2018)
%K sexual harassment
%K Me Too
%K sexual misconduct
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0160597619832047