Alyssa Milano marked the five year anniversary of her #MeToo tweet.
The Charmed alum took to Instagram on Saturday to post a screenshot of her viral 2017 tweet, which was one of the early calls for accountability for abusers in the entertainment industry and beyond. Her tweet read, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”
Below those words, she quoted, “Me too. Suggested by a friend: ‘If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me, too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
Milano’s #MeToo tweet came shortly after both The New Yorker and The New York Times published bombshell pieces about sexual misconduct allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein.
At the time, stars like Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Messing and Anna Paquin commented on Milano’s post, sharing that they, too, were survivors.
Though Milano’s 2017 tweet went viral and is often credited with making #MeToo a common phrase, activist Tarana Burke first founded the movement in 2006 when she used the words “Me, too” to discuss the prevalence of sexual assault through her Alabama-based organization Just Be, Inc. The organization, which promotes healthy self-esteem in young women, initially shared the words on their MySpace page and received a flood of responses.
In a video for Insider, Burke explained, “#MeToo is a movement that was founded in 2006 to support survivors of sexual violence, in particular black and brown girls, who were in the program that we were running. It has grown since then to include supporting grown people, women, and men, and other survivors, as well as helping people to understand what community action looks like in the fight to end sexual violence.”
In a January interview with Yahoo Entertainment for her Netflix film Brazen, Milano spoke about how her perspective on having a platform as an actor has shifted in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
“There were many times in my career and my activism where I felt like they weren’t working in harmony,” she said. “But now I really believe that there is real meaning to having a platform. There used to be a time when we would only be able to talk about issues that matter to us when we were given the opportunity from whether doing an interview, or an article or about you or something. But now because of social media we get to control our own narrative.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is here for survivors 24/7 with free, anonymous help. 800.656.HOPE (4673) and online.rainn.org.
