The Guardian

#MeToo: how a hashtag became a rallying cry against sexual harassment

Actor Alyssa Milano’s online call after the Harvey Weinstein revelations became a conversation about men’s behaviour towards women and power imbalances
Alyssa Milano has been one of Harvey Weinstein’s most vocal critics and called on women to use #MeToo to tell their stories of harassment. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

It started with an exposé detailing countless allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. But soon, personal stories began pouring in from women in all industries across the world, and the hashtag #MeToo became a rallying cry against sexual assault and harassment.

The movement began on social media after a call to action by the actor Alyssa Milano, one of Weinstein’s most vocal critics, who wrote: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

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