‘Keep the conversation going’
#Metoo raised awareness but no magic solution
A few years after the #Metoo movement shook the world, some feel it will take a generational shift to achieve gender balance — but there is hope. The Me Too movement was founded in 2006 by American survivor and activist Tarana Burke. It wasn't until 2017 that the hashtag, #Metoo, went viral across the world — driven by the celebrity sexual assault scandals of Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., and Bill Cosby — in what seemed like an overnight movement.
Although countless generations of women have encountered sexual violence, the hashtag galvanized millions of people from all segments of society to step forward and declare me too.
But as age-old as the problem is, #Metoo did not bring a magic solution: a full stop to sexual violence.
It did bring justice for victims of people like Weinstein and Cosby but also underscored systemic trouble in the justice system that revictimizes victims.
Laura Winters, executive director of the St. John's Status of Women Council women's centre, said #Metoo helped women identify that they were not alone in their experiences.
But, she said, it's hard to measure the progress, as the measuring stick are reports made to police.
Many women still don't come forward for many reasons.
“I think, overall, we saw it bring the issue into the limelight but not necessarily to increase supports for women in a meaningful way or change the systematic issues that were causing that to begin with,” she said of #Metoo.
The council's fall 2020 report on survivors of sexual violence and the criminal justice system recognized “the criminal justice system is an institution which was built to uphold patriarchal and colonial outcomes and continues to operate to great extent within those constraints.”
It also noted the way rates of sexual violence are understood is inherently flawed.
“This is due largely to mass under-reporting of sexual violence and also because of reported cases that are deemed unfounded by law enforcement, resulting in those cases slanting our national statistics and how we understand them,” the report notes.
DID IT MOVE THE NEEDLE?
Diane Crocker, chairwoman of the criminology department at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, said #Metoo had value in showing something that women already know — that almost all have experienced some form of sexual violence.
“But #Metoo was not really about gender equality and, as a movement, it focussed too much on sexual violence perpetrated by cisgender men. It also obscured the realities of sexual violence for women of colour (many of whom used #SolidarityisforwhiteWomen) or the LGBTQI+ community,” she said.
“So, when we asked if it moved the needle, we need to ask for whom? White women benefitted the most. The sexual violence highlighted by #Metoo is a manifestation of gender inequality. It may be that we need a hashtag that highlights the many ways in which we have not achieved gender equality for all genders.”
Lezlie Lowe, a writer and journalism instructor at the University of King's College in Halifax, got an apology from one of the men on her #Metoo list she wrote about in 2018, which marked the one-year anniversary of the movement.
But as for how far we've come? That's fluid.
“In terms of what's been achieved through #Metoo, and since #Metoo… it's really hard to point to anything concrete, and I don't want to be a pessimist and say, ‘Oh nothing's changed,' but I also am firmly in the camp of I am not seeing a huge shift in my day-to-day reality as a woman,” Lowe said.
The call-out culture that emerged from #Metoo is not necessarily a bad thing, but is a wobbly measure of making sure people are behaving appropriately, she said.
“Where we really need to see the change happen is in the court system,” Lowe said, adding the courts are making efforts to improve how the judiciary and lawyers are educated in their approach to victims but stereotypes of victims remain in that system and with society.
Where Lowe sees big changes are with her two daughters, ages 16 and 18. Their school stories sound like they come straight from a 1980s high school playbook, she said.
“They often speak up and speak out in ways ... I know I did not, and I don't feel like it was the norm in my generation. They call people out when they are acting inappropriately. And that goes for a number of different things — someone might be sexist, someone is being homophobic or transphobic, they call them out.”
SHINING A LIGHT
Jillian Kilfoil, executive director at Women's Network P.E.I., said #Metoo was like a light being turned on and people were looking finally at the work advocates had been doing for decades.
It started a mainstream conversation, as well as helped increase awareness, secure more funding and resources for groups to fight gender-based violence, and inspire national and provincial standards and action plans.
“I don't think we can shift a culture of violence overnight,” she said, adding the #Metoo movement needs to connect with other mobilizations around systemic racism and climate justice.
But she also sees a change in younger people.
“Often, the work of one generation is built on the work of previous generations,” Kilfoil said.
“Our younger generation, they do have a different relationship to these gender norms and restrictions related to gender. So, I am very hopeful, more of our younger generations... that shift will happen even quicker."
Charlottetown-based songwriter and musician KINLEY, whose 2016 video for her song Microphone revealed her own experience — being raped at a prom after-party — has now seen her work included as a resource in Grade 9 across P.E.I.
“I definitely think people like myself speaking out about it has helped bring attention to it, so we can really look at what the issue is and not blame women for anything that happens, because obviously, it is not our fault,” said Kinley Dowling.
“We just really need to keep talking about it and keep the conversation going. And I know it's a lot of women who have to do all this work. So for the future, I would love it if men could be more part of the conversation and just, like, talk to other men about what's happening.”
CRITICAL REAWAKENING
Shelley Curtis-thompson, executive director at Pictou County Women's Resource and Sexual Assault Centre, said the #Metoo movement was critical in reawakening the intention of creating space for survivors to tell their stories.
“I think it's critical really that women and men and all genders can come forward to share their stories…i personally feel very empowered when I see people sharing their strength, sharing their resilience, sharing their hope in light of much pain and trauma from sexual violence,” she said.
The reality is the chance of a woman experiencing violence in their life is almost a guarantee, and there is just a one per cent chance the abuser will be held accountable in the justice system, Curtis-thompson said.
“Regardless of #Metoo, I continue to feel that we have been in an epidemic here in Canada and across the world and the globe in terms of sexual violence in particular towards women,” she said.
But local projects, activism, and young people talking about their experiences and what they see as right and wrong has shown there has been a shift for the better, Curtis-thompson said.
“I can say that the youth here in Pictou County inspire me — they are empowering. They are critical thinkers. They think about the issues like privilege and intersectionality in terms of sex and race and culture and give me great hope about the movement toward equality, here in Pictou County and beyond,” she said.