Over the past few days, #MeToo statuses might have featured on your newsfeed one too many times, pushing you out of your comfort zone as you slowly realise just how trashy many men really are.

It wasn’t long before the movement took off globally, exploding after actress Alyssa Milano tweeted about it on Sunday.

It has become one of the most effective ways for women – and some men – from all over the world to show the sheer number of those who have received unsolicited sexual attention in any form, from catcalling right through to rape.

According to CNN, these were the social media stats:

Since noon Sunday, the #MeToo hashtag has been used 825,000 times, Twitter reported Tuesday.

The numbers are equally staggering on Facebook.

The company said that in less than 24 hours, 4.7 million people around the world have engaged in the “Me too” conversation, with more than 12 million posts, comments and reactions.

According to Facebook, more than 45% of people in the United States are friends with someone who’s posted a message with the words ‘Me too.

Here’s some food for thought for those of you still questioning your involvement:

And just so you know, one is not required to share their story, so you do whatever you feel comfortable doing.

But the tweet from Milano [below] isn’t where it began.

Rather, the #MeToo movement started more than 10 years ago with activist Tarana Burke, who was inspired by a scenario that occurred in 1996.

Burke, then a youth camp director, was asked by a young girl to speak privately after an all-girl bonding session.

She told her story on Just Be, which goes like this:

As a youth worker, dealing predominately with children of color [sic], I had seen and heard my share of heartbreaking stories from broken homes to abusive or neglectful parents when I met Heaven. During an all girl bonding session at our youth camp, several of the girls in the room shared intimate stories about their lives. Some were the tales of normal teenage angst and others were quite painful. Just as I had done so many times before, I sat and listened to the stories, and comforted the girls as needed. When it was over the adults advised the young women to reach out to us in the event that they needed to talk some more or needed something else – and then we went our separate ways.

The next day Heaven, who had been in the previous night’s session, asked to speak to me privately. Heaven was a sweet-faced little girl who kind of clung to me throughout the camp. However, her hyperactive and often anger-filled behavior betrayed both her name and light, high-pitched voice and I was frequently pulling her out of some type of situation. As she attempted to talk to me that day though the look in her eyes sent me in the other direction.

She had a deep sadness and a yearning for confession that I read immediately and wanted no part of. Finally, later in the day she caught up with me and almost begged me to listen…and I reluctantly conceded.

For the next several minutes this child, Heaven, struggled to tell me about her “stepdaddy” or rather her mother’s boyfriend who was doing all sorts of monstrous things to her developing body…I was horrified by her words, the emotions welling inside of me ran the gamut, and I listened until I literally could not take it anymore…which turned out to be less than 5 minutes.

Then, right in the middle of her sharing her pain with me, I cut her off and immediately directed her to another female counselor who could “help her better.”

Unable to ever forget the child’s face, one that had a look of “the shock of being rejected”, it was all too much for Burke:

I watched her walk away from me as she tried to recapture her secrets and tuck them back into their hiding place. I watched her put her mask back on and go back into the world like she was all alone and I couldn’t even bring myself to whisper…me too.

The movement was born with the mission to help young women of colour who had survived sexual abuse, assault and exploitation to speak out and Burke [above] explained that:

“On one side, it’s a bold declarative statement that ‘I’m not ashamed’ and ‘I’m not alone.’ On the other side, it’s a statement from survivor to survivor that says ‘I see you, I hear you, I understand you and I’m here for you or I get it,'” she told CNN.

Burke, who is now the program director of Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity, explained how, since its inception, the movement has fluctuated in popularity, but never before has it taken off like this.

At the end of the day, it’s a hashtag created by women, for women, and it’s time for everyone, especially men, to deeply reflect on their behaviour both practiced and permitted.

Before you go, take a read below:

“Call me when there’s a #MeToo for the men who have harassed, assaulted or raped; or for the men who have laughed at an off-colour joke about sexual violence, or looked the other way when their friends behave badly. Call me when there’s a #MeToo for the people who are really responsible.”

[source:cnn]