Presenter(s): Ashley Kim
Faculty Mentor(s): Cheyney Ryan
Oral Session 1 C
In 2006, activist Tarana Burke coined the phrase “Me Too” as a means to show solidarity and support for survivors of sexual violence. Her personal mission was to provide the resources that the black community lacked in response to sexual violence, and provide a large population of survivors with a sense unity to prove that they were not alone in enduring through their painful experiences. Over the past decade, shifts in society’s perspective of survivors have created a vocabulary to describe sexual violence and its’ presence in society, such as rape culture and even “Me Too”. The ability to clearly communicate experiences of sexual violence has given a voice to those who were previously unable to come forward with their experiences, as we are now able to identify the systems in place that enable assault and work to dismantle them. Even with the strides society has made in supporting survivors of sexual assault, the Me Too movement still only works for a subset of the population it seeks to represent. Through the examination of social media posts, interviews, and personal experiences, I sought to understand the marginalized groups that are still excluded from the public narrative and the methods society collectively needs to adopt to address exclusion and oppression in widespread social movements. Societies and cultures are shifting towards a future where sexual violence is not only unacceptable, but where every case of sexual violence is acknowledged and investigated and survivors are given the resources they need to move forward.