By: Paavna Rangarajan
Tw: sensitive topics
In 2006, Tarana Burke started a movement called, “#metoo.” This movement was
focused on allowing sexual violence survivors, sexual harassment survivors, and sexual assault survivors to speak up and share their tragic experiences to the world. The movement had its peak of popularity around 2011, and the idea behind it was to make aware of this situation. The thought was to allow sexual assault to be dealth with more severly and show how often this can happen to a women. As online.maryville.edu simply puts it,” By sharing their own experiences, the movement's proponents make clear just how common sexual harassment is.” The effects of this moment did indeed bring forth knowledge to the world, but not so much safety.
In the current world, according to www.who.int 1 in 3 women globally experience violence and of those, younger women are at most risk. In most countries around the world women lack physical security to help protect them. Due to this, women have to go the extra mile to make sure they are in a safe and healthy environment to protect themselves from any potential dangers. Unfortunately even with taking all the precautions sometimes life doesn't go as planned. Sarah Everard was only 33 years old when she disappeared on March 3rd, 2021 while walking home from a friend's house in London. A week later she was found over 50 miles away, in a wooded area in Kent. Vanessa Guillén a 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier who was murdered on April 22, 2020 inside a Fort Hood, Texas armory by another enlisted soldier after being sexually assaulted. On March 24st, 2021 Christine Englehardt, a 24 year old woman was drugged, r*ped and found dead in a Miami Beach hotel room. These three women had done nothing wrong but were wrongfully killed, which leads to the question are women really safe?
According to today.yougov.com,” research finds that most American women (61%) say they regularly take steps to avoid being sexually assaulted. Women are also considerably more likely than men to say that they “always” or “often” feel unsafe participating in everyday activities like taking the bus alone, going on a first date, and exercising outdoors.” Due to the recent disappearance of Sarah Everard, many women are in constant fear of their safety. Data from www.nydailynews.com shows that even when doing something simple like going place-to-place, women experience more fear on a larger scale due to men. Something like walking to a car alone at night in a parking lot, according to their data shows that women in the study indicated they experience fear due to men. Women don’t believe all men are a “threat” but they do feel the need to assume they are in order to ensure their safety. As the days go by, we are only jeopardizing women's safety and putting them in danger.
All in all, the “#metoo” movement could only do so much but it is our job as humans to educate those around us and spread the word and prevent this from happening to someone you know and love.
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