Logan Wiseltier

For this blog post I am going to be focusing on the Me Too movement’s original organizer. I think that Me Too is such an important movement and is something that I think deserves a lot of attention. The original creator of this movement is Tarana Burke.

Tarana Burke has been an activist for women’s rights for most of her life. She was born in the Bronx in 1973. She always had an interest in activism. Especially for women and people of color. The spark for her specific interest in the me too movement was from when she worked at a youth camp. At the camp she had a camper inform her about being sexually assaulted during a girl-bonding day. Her hearing this is what drove her to create the me too movement years later. Not only did she create the me too movement, but she created many other effective ones before me too. Some of these movements were Girls For Gender Equity and JustBe. These organizations also were supportive of women’s rights.

She started me too by posting on social media with the hashtag #metoo. This hashtag was to be used to heal and show that as women we can go through similar situations and be there for each other. The organization sheds light on the topic of sexual assault and helps bring awareness to the fact that women do get assaulted, and that there are many. The Harvey Weinstein scandal was where her hashtag was going viral at an extreme scale. Women would repost and use the hashtag to break their silence and not keep their assault a secret. Without the movement many women may still have that feeling of being stuck and keeping their assault a secret.

I admire Tarana Burke because I find it to be so rare to find a powerful woman activist. As a woman people do not always have respect and listen to your opinions. She makes sure that her voice gets heard and her message gets spread. I also admire how throughout her whole life she has been a women’s rights activist. She does not just have opinions, she acts on them. That is something I try to follow in my own life. Speaking up and stating your opinions is something I always attempt to do. Social media is an amazing platform for this and I love how she used it. Her movement went viral because she utilized the resources that would best reach her audience. Lastly, her dedication to her cause is admirable because she just continues to raise even more awareness.

Work cited:

MLA — Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Tarana Burke.” National Women’s History Museum, 2020.