Indie Edmundson

03-27-19
Mr.Veenstra
P4

#METOO
The “Me Too” movement was to help survivors from sexual violence, mostly black
women, girls, and lower income women of color. The movement was founded in 2006, and it
was a pathway for women to heal from their past. The vision from the beginning of the
movement was to address both resources and build a community for these survivors. The
movement is meant to be driven by the survivors, and they want a community of advocates. The
purpose of this movement is to create solutions to stop sexual violence in all communities.1
The #metoo movement went viral on social media websites because many women wanted
to be apart of it, in less than six months it became a vital conversation about sexual violence and
has been thrust into the national dialogue of the United States. What started as a local project
ended up going nationwide and changing more than thousands of women’s lives. The movement
is a global community of survivors that all have their own stories of surviving sexual violence in
their life. More and more women are surprised to see how many other victims there are. And
how this sexual violence has become nationwide in the United States.2
The work of the community focuses on helping those who need entry points into the
movement and need help getting out of a toxic environment. The focus of this group is to help
women. But it’s not only just to help the women but to give them a voice in the world. Individual
healing is the goal and broad systems and bases of survivors are spread across the United States
are there to help these women heal. 3

1
Me Too (p.1-3)
2
Johnson (3-4)
3
#Me (p.1-2)
 1
Cause 1: Creation of Birth Control
Before the creation of birth control, women did not have a choice in whether they wanted
a baby or not. Men could always have guilt free sex and if the woman got pregnant they had the
decision to just leave the woman with the child. 4Before birth control was created there was also
a lack in women rights and equality, without those two crucial aspects, no cases of sexual assault
or rape would be disclosed across a large audience due to the lack of women’s rights and
equality.5
In 1960, all of this changed. 1960, the birth control pill was invented and it changed equality
amongst genders. Women now have a choice in whether they want to be pregnant, and have guilt
free sex now. This is also when the United States government jumped on the anti-birth-control
bandwagon which most of the monotheistic religions had been joining as well since the
beginning of the modern period. Between the 1840s and 1890s any type of birth control was
either banned or very closely limited, effectively making it illegal throughout the United States.6

I would rate this as number 1 because this is what started the whole movement, at least
how I perceive it. When birth control was created women finally had a chance to choose what
they want to do with their bodies. Being on birth control allows women to have guilt free sex as
well, which was a big step in making them equal to men. This gave women a foundation for
wanting full equality, and really it gave them a voice. Moving forward women are starting to
grow and be able to take a stand for themselves. Women having this voice allows them to not be
objectified for jobs or other opportunity positions. The #metoo movement is all about giving
women a voice and a safe house, and birth control was one of the first safe houses we created for
women.

4
A Brief (p.1)
5
PBS (p.1)
6
Birth (p.1-4)
 2
Cause 2: Monica Lewinsky Scandal
In the late 1990’s young Monica Lewinsky had just graduated from Lewis and Clark
College and landed an unpaid internship at the White House. There was a government shutdown
and Monica was one of a few people who could still work because she isn’t on the payroll and
during this time she began to flirt with President Clinton and they had began to have a sexual
affair that lasted until 1997.7 Later in the first month of their affair Monica landed a paying job in
the White House. Later in 1996, Monica went into the oval office to see the president, obviously
turning heads, and then was transferred to a job in the Pentagon. While working in the Pentagon
Monica made a friend, Linda Tripp, who she later confided in about the affair. 8Linda wen to an
agent to investigate Monica’s calls with and encounters with Clinton. This evidence was later
given to the police and Monica was given the chance of immunity for a testament against
Clinton. This scandal is so revolutionary because of how a woman could only work her way up
in the workplace if she sleeps with the boss. More and more uncoverings of workplace scandals
were appearing throughout the country. Women started to stand up and rise for equal pay in the
workplace and how we shouldn’t have to use sex as a tool to work their way up.9

I would rate this as 2 because this is where women having an affair with the boss for a
higher position really got exposed. Monica was sleeping with not just any employer, but the
president. This really shows how even where the gender equality law was created it was still
being misused by the biggest employer in the game. Women are objectified for their bodies all
the time and now they have to just to be able to pay their mortgage. This is such a big deal
though because this opened a floodgate of scandals, and more revealing of how women had to
sleep with their employer to be able to get a job. This started a hysteria between genders and
women really started standing up, and sharing all their stories of sexual harassment.

7
Editors (p.1)
8
Nolasco (p.2-4)
9
Is Monica (p.3)
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Cause 3: Anita Hill Hearing
Anita Hill was born and raised in Oklahoma, and during the hearings in 1991 Ms. Hill
was a professor in law at the University of Oklahoma. Ms. hill went to Oklahoma State
University and graduated from Yale Law School. She said that Judge Thomas would repeatedly
make overtures at her, while she was working for him in the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and Education Department.10 He would repeatedly talk about pornographic films
with her, as well as making sexual references towards her. Ms. Hill later come forward after she
had been contacted by a Senate staff member who was investigating the Judge’s background.11
She ended up taking this to court, Biden and his fellow republicans only wanted to focus on the
sexual harassment cases and not worry about the other things that Judge Thomas did to Anita.12

I would rate this as 3 because this was another sexual harassment story that got revealed about
how a man abused his position of power and objectified a woman for his own amusement. To
this day Judge Thomas is still in the Senate and that shows that this is rated a three because she
has yet to find justice. This is a big factor in the #metoo movement because it is a big point to
show that women are definitely not treated equally compared to men. I chose to put this higher
up because, this is something that happened more recently than say Betty Friedan, but it is a big
factor as to why it is more frequent for women to come out with stories of how they have been
sexually assaulted as well. In conclusion, as time went on the #metoo movement helped a lot of
women feel more open about what has happened to them, as well as making it a more well
known controversy.

10
Bouchard (p.2)
11
Me too (p.1)
12
Johnson (p.3-4)
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Cause 4: College Rape and Court Cases
There is a lot you need to know about sexual assault. Sexual assault is a type of sexual
violence, this term applies to a wide range of forced and unwanted sexual activity that can lead to
unwanted pregnancies and STDs. This also includes even attempted rape, unwanted touching,
and unwanted sexual references. Generally, rape is the only thing that gets counted as sexual
assault, but actually even making sexual references when it’s unwanted is counted as sexual
assault too. 13Sexual assault can also involve trying to force someone into something they don’t
give consent to. This usually happens by manipulation, physical or emotional coercion, or
psychological forces, including making threats or trying to intimidate them into things. No
matter which form sexual assault takes, victim’s should never think it’s their fault, but they need
to realize they didn’t ask for this. 14
Sexual assault is so common now in our country that it’s scary. RAINN (the rape, abuse,
& incest national network) recently reported that every 98 seconds someone is raped or sexully
asaulted. Sexual assault shouldn’t be regarded as the norm though because if we addressed the
problem, we can do something about it. According to RAINN, the rate of sexual violence in the
United States have dropped more than half since 1993. It’s encouraging that it has dropped so
much, but we need to do a lot more work until we can consider ourselves to have “Sexual
Autonomy” listed in our virtues.15

I would rate this as cause 4 because this was a big thing to be revealed. Students are
going to school to learn and advance their way of life, but instead they’re drugged and raped.
Universities have the biggest rate of rape and sexual assault, but yet there hasn’t been anything to
stop it. Women everyday were being used as sex toys and nobody cared enough to even stop it,
because it wasn’t their biggest problem. That is the problem because women weren’t seen as
equals and if they were mistreated by a guy then it’s “okay” because the guys are “superior”. As
a female this is something that bothers me because I will be going off to college in a few months
and there aren’t people out forcibly trying to stop this problem. As time went on, women getting
raped became such a norm that it became unnoticed for a long time. In the end, this is a 4
because so many women were getting raped and so many were sharing their stories, and it started
rallying women up to stop this inequality and to keep our bodies safe.

13
Writers (p.1)
14
Anderson (p.3)
15
Johnson (p.1-2)
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Cause 5: Donald Trump
Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, has been and is still being
accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment, including groping and non-consensual kissing,
by at least 23 women since the 1980s. The accusations from these women have resulted in 3
widely reported instances of indictment: his previous wife, Ivana, in 1989 made a rape claim
during the process of their divorce at the time, but later recanted that claim. Jill Harth, a
businesswoman, was suing Trump for allegedly breaching a contract, and also was suing him for
nonviolent sexual harassment, but later withdrew after they made a settlement in 2017. During
the same time as the Harth lawsuit, Summer Zervos started to file a defamation lawsuit because
Trump was calling her a liar. The rest arose after the leaking of an audio recording from 2005
during the presidential campaign in 2016. 16In the recording from 2005, Trump was bragging
about how celebrities “can do anything” to women. He even said “just start kissing them … I
don’t even wait” and “Grab ‘em by the pussy”. Subsequently, Trump characterized those
comments as just “locker room talk” and actually denied he behaved that way around women,
then later apologized for the explicit language. Many of his accusers would state that Trump’s
denial is what provoked them into going public with their allegations of him sexually harassing
and assaulting them. More accusations were made after the audio recording was released, and
were primarily made by Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. They accused Trump of entering their
dressing rooms and bluntly staring at them. Trump is the owner of the Miss Universe franchise,
which includes both the teen and adult pageants. He was accused for this harassment in 1997,
2000, 2001, and 2006. 17This would occur while contestants were in various stages of
undressing. This all was brought up again during his interview on The Howard Stern Show in
2005, he bluntly stated that he could “get away with things like that”. 23 women have made
sexual misconduct allegations against Trump. Because of Trump’s denial, women started coming
in waves of frustration, all during his life since that audio recording was leaked. Trump says he is
the victim of media, which of course stirs up the women even more. Trump publicly vowed to
sue all of the women who have made “false” allegations of sexual assault or any type of
harassment against him in October of 2016. He has said he wanted to sue New York Times as
well since they published these allegations, but has yet to follow through with it.18

I would rate this as a 5 for making the #metoo movement even bigger. More and more
women were coming forward with their allegations against Trump and joining the movement in
spite of him. The movement hasn ‘t been as big and important as it is now because of Trump,
and his representation in social media now. Trump has 23 allegations against him alone and has
sparked more aggression and anger in the movement since he has been elected. He is not
someone that should even b e allowed in the position of the president, but because he was
running against a woman he of course won. The whole 2018 election really showed how women
are still not seen as an equal to men, they’re so not equal that we elected in a half-ass president
who starts more drama than a teenager in middle school and who prioritizes his groping women
skills and spray tans.

16
Donald (p.2-3)
17
FACT (p.1)
18
CNN
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Cause 6: Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby is an American comedian, actor, and producer. He played several major roles
in the developing of more-positive shows about black lives. He had a sterling reputation until it
got tarnished by dozens of women coming forward and accusing him of sexual assault over
several decades.19 In 2018, he was prosecuted as guilty for drugging and sexually assaulting
women. Stacey Pinkerton, one of the many women to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, had her
life sent into a tailspin from the encounter with Cosby in 1986. 20She was always told to be quiet
about it initially, so she did. Stacey stayed quiet until she started to hear about other women
stepping forward and sharing their accounts with the monster too. Cosby will be 81 by the time
his sentence starts and he is facing up to 10 years per count though he’s likely to serve them
concurrently. He is out free on bail for 1 million right now, and there isn’t a big rush to getting
him into jail.21

I would rate this as a six because I believe that with such a big movie star that Bill Cosby
was about how famous he was having his allegations against him was really socialized and
portrayed in social media as him being a sexual predator towards women. This is a big thing
because as we go on throughout time we don’t really realize all the women that are being
sexually harassed. This is rated as a six because it’s not something that is so big that caused the
whole Me Too movement but it is something that did play along with it and as time goes by it
shows more and more how women are being used and it goes under the radar because most
people don’t even care enough to look into it. The purpose of the movement was to give women
a way tp get away from domestic or sexual violence and sexual inequality without punishment.
This event made a lot of women use that voice of the Me Too movement.

Cause 7: Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan was a journalist, activist, and the co-founder of the National Organization
for Women. In 1960, Friedan became one of the early leaders for the women’s rights movement.

19
Britannica (p.1)
20
Judge (p.2-6)
21
Deerwester (p.1-3)
 7
Her best-selling book, The Feminine Mystique, was a voice for the women in America and
expressed their frustrations with limited gender role and was a spark for the widespread of
public activism for gender equality in everything. 22
The Feminine Mystique lit a feminine time bomb, and ended up becoming an instant
best-seller, that even till the 20th century was still counting as one of the most influential
nonfiction books. This book brought awareness to many women, which lead them into the
vanguard of the women’s movement. This later led Friedan into her early Leadership. She joined
forces with Pauli Murray and Aileen Hernandez in 1966 to found the National Organization for
Women, which is still a leading feminist organization, having Friedan as the First President. The
first action the organization made was to demand the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission enforce all provisions in the Title VII which guarantees gender equality in
employment.23
Friedan was one of the most busy activist throughout the 60s and 70s. She helped found
the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws in 1969. The association later got
renamed to National Abortion Rights Action League and shortened to NARAL Pro-choice
America. Friedan even organized the Women’s Strike for Equality on August 26, 1970 which
fell onto the 50th anniversary for women’s suffrage, raising awareness about gender
discrimination. Adding onto that, Friedan was one of the co-founders of the National Women’s
Political Caucus. She was influential throughout all these organizations and changing outdated
laws, like unfair hiring practices, pregnancy discrimination, and gender pay equality. 24
I rate this case at seven, but not because it is an unimportant event, but because it’s not
what most people were focusing on at the time. Most people were focusing on sexual assault and
sexual violence but they looked over the very crucial part about how women want to be equal.
This event showed how women deserve to be equal and in essence it gave them a voice. Betty
Friedan was an amazing woman who helps a lot with women’s suffrage and the movement even
though she wasn’t the apart of the #metoo movement or wasn’t even around when it was created.
Throughout time we have had countless strong woman in history and Betty Friedan is really
strong woman but like I would still rate her at seven because it didn’t affect big amount of people
and wasn’t nationwide, unlike like the Donald Trump or the Bill Cosby cases. More people are
focusing on how men are abusing and sexually assaulting women and the #metoo movement is
mainly based on sexual violence and how to get out of it. This event helped women gain their
voice for the #metoo movement.

22
Betty (p. 1-2)
23
Johnson (p.2)
24
Yenor (p.1-3)
 8
Cause: 8
In 2006, Tarana Burke created the phrase "Me Too" to help women who had been
through and got out of sexual violence. Later it became a global movement that helped raise
awareness to sexual harassment, abuse, and also assault in the society of 2017. Tarana Burke
originally created the phrase “me too” while working at Just Be Inc., which is a nonprofit
company she founded in 2003.25 Her company focused on the overall well being of colored
young women. Burke started to talk to a girl who revealed that her mother’s boyfriend was
physically and sexually abusing her. Burke was trying to help this girl, but was at a loss in trying
to find the right words to empathize with her and all the other countless young women also being
sexually abused. Ever since then Burke shared the message from this girl with a message to all
girls letting them know it’s okay to come forward. 26Survivors everywhere were commenting,
saying things like “You’re not alone. This happened to me too”. The simple words “me too”
helped Burke create a foundation for her movement of women’s rights. “Me too” helped shape
Burke’s life-long campaign for activism to help young women in situations such as sexual abuse,
harassment, or assault.27

I rank this at 8 because even though she is the one whe created the #metoo, she didn’t do
the most influential change in society. She created a safe outlet for women to share about their on
stories and express how they feel, but she didn’t do much to change what happened. Burke is a
strong face for women though because she did have a life-long campaign for women’s rights and
she was a strong feminist. She helped women out of situations such as harassment and assault, so
that’s why she is in my piece. She is not the most important in my essay, but she is in the top 8
for helping start up this movement. The biggest thing Burke does is spread awareness and it
gives attention to what really happens. Without giving it awareness we wouldn’t ever really
notice it was happening.

25
Me Too (p.1)
26
Worthen(p.2)
27
Alnuweiri (p.1)
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Citations
"#MeToo Movement | World News." The Guardian. Accessed May 06, 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/metoo-movement.

"A Brief History of Birth Control in the U.S." Our Bodies Ourselves. Accessed April 09, 2019.
https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/a-brief-history-of-birth-
control/.

Anderson, Nick. "These Colleges Have the Most Reports of Rape." The Washington Post. June
07, 2016. Accessed May 06, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-
point/wp/2016/06/07/these-colleges-have-the-most-reports-of-
rape/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3620caa7b7a2.

Alnuweiri, Tamim, and Tamim Alnuweiri. "What Does the "me Too" Movement Mean for
Women?" Well Good. October 16, 2017. Accessed May 04, 2019.
https://www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/me-too-social-media-sexual-abuse-assault/.

"Betty Friedan." National Women's History Museum. Accessed April 29, 2019.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan.

"Birth Control Types, Pros and Cons, Myths, and More - Watch WebMD Video." WebMD.
Accessed May 06, 2019. https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/video/birth-control-
types-options.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Bill Cosby." Encyclopædia Britannica. March 28,
2019. Accessed April 25, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bill-Cosby.

Bouchard, Mikayla, and Marisa Schwartz Taylor. "Flashback: The Anita Hill Hearings
Compared to Today." The New York Times. September 27, 2018. Accessed April 17,
2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/us/politics/anita-hill-kavanaugh-
hearings.html.

CNN. "Eight Women Accuse Trump of Sexual Harassment." YouTube. October 15, 2016.
Accessed May 06, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9xTWl230AE.

Deerwester, Jayme. "Judge Sets September Sentencing Date for Bill Cosby after Conviction."
USA Today. May 15, 2018. Accessed May 06, 2019.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/05/15/judge-sets-september-sentencing-
date-bill-cosby/611886002/.

"Donald Trump Sexual Misconduct Allegations." Wikipedia. April 06, 2019. Accessed April 29,
2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations.
 10
Editors, History.com. "Monica Lewinsky Scandal." History.com. December 20, 2017. Accessed
April 11, 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/monica-lewinsky.

"Is Monica Lewinsky Married, Who Is Her Husband, Where Is She Now?" Heightline.
September 06, 2018. Accessed May 06, 2019. https://heightline.com/monica-lewinsky-
married-husband/.

Johnson, Christen A. "#MeToo: A Timeline of Events." Chicagotribune.com. March 07, 2019.

Accessed March 29, 2019. https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-timeline-
20171208-htmlstory.html.

"Judge Sets Sentencing Date for Cosby's Sex Assault Case." NBCNews.com. Accessed May 06,
2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bill-cosby-scandal/judge-sets-sentencing-date-
bill-cosby-s-sex-assault-case-n874576.

"Me Too. Movement." Me Too Movement. Accessed April 29, 2019. https://metoomvmt.org/.

Nolasco, Stephanie. "Monica Lewinsky Details Bill Clinton Affair, Terrifying Meeting with
Investigators in New Doc." Fox News. Accessed May 06, 2019.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/monica-lewinsky-details-bill-clinton-affair-
terrifying-meeting-with-investigators-in-new-doc.

PBS. Accessed April 11, 2019. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/a-brief-history-of-

the-birth-control-pill/480/.

Todd, Carolyn. "The History and Evolution of Birth Control in America." Allure. October 08,
2018. Accessed April 11, 2019. https://www.allure.com/story/history-of-birth-control.

Yenor, Scott. "Betty Friedan and the Birth of Modern Feminism." The Heritage Foundation.
Accessed May 06, 2019. https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/betty-friedan-and-the-
birth-modern-feminism.

Worthen, Meredith. "Tarana Burke." Biography.com. July 17, 2018. Accessed March 29, 2019.
https://www.biography.com/people/tarana-burke.

Writers, Staff. "Realities of Sexual Assault on Campus." BestColleges.com. May 15, 2018.
Accessed April 29, 2019. https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/preventing-sexual-
assault/.