Tonight's Wednesday Wrap - We're discussing the #MeToo movement with Ben-RO from our Youth Community

[Ngaio-RO]

Awesome. Ok, So ICYMI  #MeToo is a hashtag that was started THIS time by Alyssa Milano after a friend tweeted her. It's in relation to the Harvey Weinstein allegations around him sexual harassing and abusing a large number of women throughout his career as a movie producer. These women were terrified to come forward as they believed their careers were at stake. Rightly so.

Anyway, this hashtag kicked off as a way of creating a sea of women standing together to say that they have experienced either sexual harassment or sexual abuse.

[taokat]

I had a really good chat with my daughter this afternoon around the #metoo.

I was impressed with her thoughts!!

[Ngaio-RO]

There's been a huge number of women adding this to their status and a number of people stating they are feeling triggered and distressed by it.

So, let's start with @taziness and @taokat Have you guys seen this in your social media feeds?

[taokat]

Haha, hey @Ben-RO.

Thanks for being here tonight!

[Ben-RO]

@taokat if you'd like would love to hear what she had to say. So cool that you had a chat with her about it  

[Ngaio-RO]

@taokat I'd love to hear them.

[Ngaio-RO]

@Ben-RO do you want to give us a sense of how the young people in your community are feeling about this?

[taokat]

I like getting her thoughts on things because she can be pretty switched on. She'd seen it on social media. She thought it was a great way for women to come together to spread awareness around the prevalence of sexual harrassment and assault around the world which she thinks is a positive.

The negative she saw was that women could feel pressured to take part when they don't want to expose what's happened to them. She thought the problem with it was that women could be judged by others, and if you haven't taken part in the #metoo, well, were you really assaulted??

Interesting! Thoughts @Ben-RO?

[Ben-RO]

@Ngaio-RO that's a good question. As always there's a lot of different responses. For many this brings up memories of what they have survived and that can be distressing. For others it brings hope. A ubiquitous and terrible problem is finally being spoken about openly and en masse and with that comes hope for change at long last. 

Our Mods have organised a conversation with the Sexual Assualt Response Centre in Western Australia to offer a bit of extra support around the intense feelings this is bringing up for many. 

[Ngaio-RO]

You're right @taokat she is switched on!

I don't think I've heard anyone discuss her second point but it's a good one.

Did she say whether many of her peers had responded?