It has been more than a year since the trending hashtag of #MeToo started its round about the internet. A lot of influential males lost their power, feminism was discussed and women found the strength to voice their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse. Suddenly, abusive men are not so confident about their misconduct remaining a secret. Why did it take so long for this exposure? Why did it start with a hashtag? Why #MeToo? Such abstract questions will never have satisfactory answers.
#MeToo does indeed provide a platform for women who were harassed to express their feelings and expose their abuser; but one has to wonder why such a platform had to emerge in the first place. Women have always been at the receiving end of abuse for centuries and it doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. #MeToo empowers women to come out and shame their abusers in the best possible way. Those men deserved to be publicly shamed, because an act of harassment is shameful and unmanly. The campaign has helped reduce the chauvinist attitude of men to a great extent, by proving that women won’t take it all silently, that they do have a say in the matter.
While #MeToo bought forth some serious issues to ‘trend’ on social media, which is otherwise replete with gossips and rumours, one cannot ignore that at least some part of it was extreme. If the accused men were to be exposed at all, why didn’t it happen sooner? What is the point of making them abusers in front of the whole world, instead of confronting them and questioning their activities in person? While nobody is questioning the women who made the charges, one cannot deny that some may misuse the campaign to ruin the hard-gained reputation of men they begrudge? Many women have taken to #MeToo to reveal that they were abused. What is the possibility that each and every one of them is absolutely and irrevocably true?
Feminists may argue that the world isn’t very open-minded about female rights, that talking about harassment is sensitive and not well received by the public, who focus on victimising the woman instead of their abuser. But the popularity of #MeToo is contrary to the perception that women's rights aren’t well received.
The way things are going, it seems like it wouldn’t be too long before men start to come out and accuse women for incorrectly blaming them. It has to be seen just how well those accusations would hold.