Like Swift and Judd, the rest of the women gracing the cover each spoke about their experiences. Adama Iwu a forty-year-old lobbyist initiated a petition to investigate sexual harassment in the California Capital that resulted in a statewide investigation. She herself investigated how several young women confided in her about the same men. She describes it as a whisper network and decided to organize it into a single voice because 147 victims can’t be wrong. And! This is a powerful phrase; she exclaimed: “We can’t all be sluts.”
Isabel Pascual 42 a strawberry picker relayed how she was repeatedly harassed by a co-worker who kept pressing himself onto her and kissing her. Pascual a Native American and just 22 at the time felt suffocated and trapped in her situation. She finally quit her job. She says on the reservation, no one speaks up as it was a situation where ‘You’re not supposed to do that. You’re not supposed to speak up.'” src-Time magazine.
The #MeToo became a rallying badge, a war cry for women across the USA to rally against harassment. Tamara Burke a social activist first used it as part of her solidarity building efforts among victims and survivors of harassment. Taylor Swift’s friend, Alyssa Milano sent Swift a screenshot of the phrase. Milano again tweeted out the same on Oct 15 just by a whim saying "If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply to this tweet,” When she woke up the next morning, there were 30,000 replies with the hashtag MeToo. She had unknowingly started a movement.
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The hashtag spread from among the entertainment industry to the people. By November it had reached far and wide involving employees, farmhands, and workers like Pscual who were then seen marching on Hollywood streets in solidarity with the stars who faced harassment. Fowler says “Women were no longer alone.”There's something really empowering about standing up for what's right," says Fowler, who has grown comfortable with her new reputation as a whistle-blower. "It's a badge of honor.”
The MeToo hashtag spread like wildfire worldwide where more and more women in different countries like England accused personalities in entertainment, industry, and politics of sexual misconduct. #MeToo had become a power surge and a bolster for women around the world. It is this voice that time is now honoring as its person of the year 2017.
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