#MeToo Isn't Enough

#MeToo Isn’t Enough.

On October 5, 2017, the New York Times published a story about decades of allegations against a powerful Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein. Some of the accusations included women stating that they were forced to massage him and watch him while he was nude. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also offered to advance Hollywood careers in exchange for sexual behaviors. The victims include Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd. On the same day that this story broke, Weinstein issued the following paraphrased apology:

“I came of age in the 60’s and 70’s, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces were different. That was the culture then. I’ve learned it’s not an excuse…to anyone. I appreciate the way I’ve behaved… in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.”

After that he seems to speak about his charity and a retirement party he is throwing.

Later in the day his lawyer informs The Hollywood Reporter that Weinstein is planning on suing the New York Times, while Weinstein himself announces that he will be taking a leave of absence from his own company to work with a therapist. The next day, his company, The Weinstein Company states that it is taking the allegations “very seriously” while launching an investigation.

Over the course of the next couple weeks, his lawyer resigns, Harvey is fired with immediate effect, and over 50 women come out with their own stories about Weinstein abusing them. This list has since grown to 83 accusations, along with at least three rape allegations.

Georgina Chapman, Weinstein’s wife announces that she is leaving him and Bafta states that Weinstein is suspended immediately. This issue reached internal proportions when the United Kingdom also began investigating accusations that took place in London over a span of 35 years.

Around October 17th, the Weinstein effect began. Since then many other powerful men in Hollywood have been accused, fired, or resigned due to sexual harassment allegations. Most recently Kevin Spacey was accused of assault when he was in his early twenties and has since been fired from Netflix’s critically acclaimed show House of Cards.

While all of this was going on, many women worldwide began using the #MeToo to come out and support one another in a time in desperate need of support. In 24 hours, the hashtag was used more than 109,451 times, and on October 24th, it was reported by CBS to have been used 1.7 MILLION times.

Mind you, that doesn’t include any other social media platform. Too many women have been abused in one way or another, and it was amazing to witness the courage that they possessed in sharing their story.

As some of you may know, I was molested when I was about 13 and shared an open letter on this site, however on my personal Facebook account, I could only bear to write the #MeToo and not post my story publicly. I ended up joining a closed Facebook group where I did share my story and read too many others. There are so many women who have experienced abuse, however, most will not pressure legal action for one reason or another.

There is a problem with that.

I am American, and I am painfully aware of how broken our systems are. I have dealt with the judicial system in the form of Mock Trial as well as Teen Court (I’m only 20) and have dealt with CPS more than my fair share of times, both as a victim and ‘abuser.’

My 16-year-old sister tried to kill me, no joke and she had the gall to call CPS on me for defending myself. Her claims were found to be unfounded, but that is a story for another time) and doing nothing legally changes almost nothing for the abusers in this situation. Here in America, you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This means that no matter how many allegations are made again pedophiles, sexual predators or even physical abusers, they can still get a job which places others in danger.

I was personally attacked by a pedophile, however, nothing was legally done (long story as to why, I will post it in a separate article at a later date). The only way I was proven right was when they found him being intimate with a seven-year-old. I was never called to testify or anything, so I am not sure if he was prosecuted after that, however, if I had been able to take him to court and have him found guilty, he never would have been able to harm that child.

Now, I am not faulting those who do not seek legal counsel or a case against their attackers, however, I am pointing out a flaw in this movement. We can come forward, scream until we are blue, but legally nothing will change. Pedophiles can work in schools until they are found guilty and placed in the registry. Same goes for rapists. Remember Brock Turner, the Stanford Rapist? He got six months. Now he was exposed and ripped apart by the public, however, he only did three months in jail, not prison, county jail.

Thankfully he has a lifetime ban against USA Swimming due to a zero-tolerance policy, however, this isn’t how most cases go.

Most are like my own, either the statue of limitations has expired, or there is no concrete evidence. While awareness has been raised, nothing has been done to stop these predators from attacking again. A lot of people didn’t even reveal the name of who abused them (I didn’t) and I can’t blame them, however, that means that they are still anonymous while we victims placed ourselves out in the limelight.

These horrid people are still hiding in the shadows, and while I love that women, and men, have gained the courage to come forward and tell someone about how they were assaulted, we need to be able to do more. The system needs to change so the true victims don’t go unheard. Personally, I was told that I was lying for years, it was one of the worst things to happen to me.

It affected me more than the assault in my opinion. Now I always need to have hard evidence when I argue about anything (that’s how I proved my innocence against my sister) and while it has come in handy, it has done nothing to bring my attacker to justice, for all I know he could still be preying on others. I don’t even know his whole name.

This article wasn’t written to shame people, or make them feel guilty, I wrote it to try and get others to think. Maybe someone important will stumble across this and have an idea to reform the system. Maybe not, but hey, it’s out there to find.

In conclusion, we need to have a way to speak out freely against the people who hurt us, without putting ourselves at risk. I have read about fathers, grandfathers, uncles and many other family members preying on their children, grandchildren, etc. It breaks my heart. Those people are some of the bravest I have heard of. They named (in a fashion) their abusers and brought it into the light.

We need to find a way to make that possible for everyone. We are getting closer to this reality, but we aren’t there quite yet, hopefully one day we will get there.