In the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, tens of thousands of women are identifying themselves as victims of sexual harassment or assault.
Women and some men shared their stories on social media under the hashtag #MeToo after actress Alyssa Milano posted a message Sunday on Twitter that said, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘Me too’ as a reply to this tweet, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
By mid-day Monday, the hashtag had been retweeted more than a million times, a Twitter spokesman told Hollywood Reporter. Among those who weighed in were Lady Gaga, Monica Lewinsky, Rosario Dawson and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
“Being raped once made it easier to be raped again. I instinctually shut down. My body remembered, so it protected me. I disappeared. #metoo,” actress Evan Rachel Wood wrote as part of a series of tweets on her experience.
Hamilton star Javier Munoz tweeted, “Me too. I don’t know if it means anything coming from a gay man but it’s happened. Multiple times.”
Milano’s former co-star on TV’s Charmed, Rose McGowan, tweeted in support of the campaign. McGowan had her Twitter account suspended after she accused Weinstein of raping her.
McGowan’s account was reinstated after the hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter began trending.
A similar social media campaign is playing out on Instagram among models who are sharing stories of abuse and harassment in the fashion industry.
Model Cameron Russell put out a post four days ago offering help to models and has been deluged with responses.
That effort has launched the hashtag #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse.
Early last week, Weinstein was fired by the board of his production company, the Weinstein Co., following an explosive New York Times report just days earlier, in which 13 women accused him of sexually harassing or assaulting them.
In another report in The New Yorker, three women accused Weinstein of raping them.
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