The #metoo social media movement made me think. So many people I know posted about it, and people who could have but chose not to.
There are people who don't understand it. Who either don't think it is a problem or who don't think these individual occurrences should affect women the way they do. Or that women are making something out of nothing.
It's not about the individual instances. It's the sum of what has been happening our entire lives.
It's being an underclassman in high school at a cast party, and guys telling you that you should be dancing on a table because you are wearing a thong.
It's being a senior on a trip to NYC, getting cornered by for guys on the ferry to Ellis Island, and only getting away because a male classmate went looking for you.
It's walking downtown at night with a guy friend and a group telling "Someone's getting lucky tonight!!" with a whistle.
It's being at the grocery store and an employee following you for a while in order to ask if you've got a man.
It's a guy slowing down his car next to you and saying "can I go where you're going" while you are walking to yoga.
It's the guy on the back steps of the pizza place yelling at you about how great you look and does it really matter if you have a boyfriend. And then him continuing to do it for a year.
It's a guy grabbing your ass in a crowded bar and wondering why you didn't take it as a compliment.
It's being cornered alone in a Porta Potty by someone you just met while at a concert.
It's knowing that it will happen again.
All of these added together are the sum of our experience. The above are just the examples I thought of while writing this. I'm sure there will be more that I remember.
#metoo brought about more awareness, but where do we go from here?
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