BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Has #MeToo divided women?

  • Published
    17 August 2018
Share page
About sharing
A picture of Rose McGowan, who has become a central figure in the #MeToo movementImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Rose McGowan has become a key #MeToo figure

Anisa Subedar
BBC Trending

It has been the most visible feminist social media movement of recent times, but has #MeToo also created division between women?

Few could have predicted the impact of a single tweet by actor Alyssa Milano in October 2017.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post by Alyssa Milano

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post by Alyssa Milano

It came in the wake of dozens of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges.

Millions of women heeded Alyssa Milano's call, and thousands of stories were shared by women describing their experiences of sexual assaults and abuse online.

The moment was soon hashtag-ised into the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak about about sexual harassment and abuse.

A picture of Alyssa Milano, whose tweet sparked a worldwide trendImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Alyssa Milano's tweet sparked a worldwide trend

line

You might also be interested in:

  • What has #MeToo actually changed?

  • Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty in third sex assault case

  • How 'MeToo' is exposing the scale of sexual abuse

line

But as the allegations piled up against accused abusers and rapists, the phenomenon simultaneously exposed rifts and differences of opinion between women. There have been discussions about the aims of the movement: should it focus on workplace assaults, or be a much broader equality campaign? What tactics are useful? And what should happen when accusations turn out to be false?

One potential generational divide reared its head early on, with some older feminists decrying what they saw as a focus on victimhood. In essence, they were telling their younger counterparts to toughen up and get shrewder about the intentions of men.

In a much-discussed piece for The Atlantic, external, Caitlin Flanagan said women who were teenagers in the 1970s "were strong in a way that so many modern girls are weak."

Megan McArdle, a columnist for the Washington Post says: "I think there are situations in which women have more power."

Speaking to BBC Trending, McArdle says she believes the issue is "complicated".

"I think there are also lots of situations where the men do [have the power]. But I think we should teach those women to stand up and seize that power back."

Gender justice specialist Natalie Collins thinks that many younger women have been misled.

"I think young women have been told a lie that they can have equal power in sexual interactions with men. The reality is they don't."

Collins also believes the prevalence of pornography impacts more on the life of a younger woman.

"Porn culture has led her to have a particular understanding of what it means to have sexual interactions of what is erotic and what's not.

"The problem is she has lived in a culture which hasn't educated her that men and women are not equal, and men have power over women in nearly every interaction she's going to have."

On the other hand, it is possible that reports of a generational divide have been exaggerated. In a Vox/Morning Consult survey, external in March, there wasn't much difference in the attitudes of younger and older women about #MeToo - or their concerns about its potential negative effects

'Naive Fantasy'

Other women have raised concerns that the campaign's benefits will come mainly for white, Western women.

More than 10 years ago, before the present hashtag incarnation, African-American activist Tarana Burke first used the phrase "me too" in connection with a campaign against sexual assault.

Some have expressed concern that Burke and other ethnic minority women are being ignored.

sign saying 'meToo"Image source, Getty Images

Poet Asha Bandele told the website Afropunk, external: "I have my concern about the ownership of that movement publicly being in the hands of white women. I don't know that white women have ever led a movement that secured people outside of their own.

"And I also think about Tarana Burke who is the founder of #MeToo, not being given her proper space, in my opinion. She's not put on the cover of Time magazine for the movement she founded, she's put inside the pages."

line

More on this story

Download the Trending podcast - from the BBC World Service

line

But some have argued that the movement is adaptable, and that it will be interpreted in different ways across different cultures.

"Who can speak up about everything for everyone?" says author Kirsty Allison. "That's just a kind of naive fantasy."

This picture taken on June 9, 2018 shows South Korean women staging a monthly protest against secretly-filmed spycam pornography in Seoul. - Since May, the monthly demonstrations against secretly-filmed spycam pornography in Seoul has shattered records to become the biggest-ever women's protest in South Korea where the global #MeToo movement has unleashed an unprecedented wave of female-led activism.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The MeToo movement has inspired action in many countries, including this march against secretly filmed spycam pornography in South Korea

What's next?

Although social media mentions of #MeToo have declined since the explosion of interest following Alysaa Milano's initial tweet, the hashtag remains a consistent feature of online discussion. The movement shows no sign of going away.

The #MeToo hashtag was tweeted more than five million times in the last three months of 2017. And it was used more than two million times during a three month period between May and August this year.

"It's not like something like the fall [of the Berlin Wall] or like John Lennon getting shot. This is more like it's an ongoing moment," McArdle says.

"I think history will write this as a big cultural shift. Like many big cultural shifts in a couple of cases it may have, we're still calibrating. We had an old norm, we've gotten rid of it, what are the new ones? I think we're still trying to figure that out.

"We may look back and think in some cases we went too far and in some cases we didn't go far enough, we're still trying to figure this out but I think this will absolutely be seminal for women in the workplace. I really do."

Do you have a story for us? Email BBC Trending, external.

More from Trending:

How the handmaid became an international protest symbol

protesters in Argentina dressed as handmaidsImage source, Getty Images

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, external, and find us on Facebook, external. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

More on this story

  • Costa strikes as Spain survive Iran scare

    • Attribution
      Sport
    • Published
      20 June 2018
    COsta celebrates
  • Women finally allowed in Iran football stadium

    • Published
      21 June 2018
    Women posted selfies from inside the Azadi stadium on Wednesday as they watched Iran play Spain in the 2018 World Cup

Top stories

  • Trump threatens 50% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil

    • Published
      3 hours ago
  • Soldier in custody after five shot on US military base

  • The secret system Hamas uses to pay government salaries

    • Published
      4 hours ago

More to explore

  • Oceangate's Titan whistleblower: 'People were sold a lie'

    David Lochridge in a submersible looking out at an underwater reef
  • Debt, delays & desperation - how Sheff Wed crisis impacts fans

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Sheffield Wednesday fan Gaz Robinson talks to the BBC
  • Carol Kirkwood: Why weather forecasters (like me) often appear to get it wrong

    Carol Kirkwood presents the weather forecast
  • Hiroshima: Ceremony marks 80th anniversary of atomic bombing

    Attendees offer flowers during the Peace Memorial Ceremony on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
  • Violent Channel smuggling gang's French and UK network exposed by undercover BBC investigation

    A composite image of two men involved in the people-smuggling gang. On the left is a colourful picture of Abdullah in France, holding a phone to his ear and wearing a body warmer and baseball cap. On the right is a young man wearing a green sweatshirt, filmed on a UK train station concourse.
  • Russian attacks on Ukraine double since Trump inauguration

    Donald Trump imposed over the BBC Verify colours and branding. Beside him is a cut out of a strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
  • Propaganda or fair warning? Taiwanese TV show imagines Chinese invasion

    A Taiwanese woman with long black hair and dressed in a grey coat screams in shock as a bomb explodes in the building behind her. In the background you can see a large cloud of smoke billowing out of the building as people run and duck for cover.
  • Why is it so hard to break into the NFL?

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Louis Rees-Zammit on the sideline during the Jacksonville Jaguars' game against the New England Patriots at in October 2024
  • Future Earth newsletter: Get exclusive insight on the latest climate news from Justin Rowlatt

    Future Earth promo
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    Guests rejected by Airbnb host because they're from Wales

  2. 2

    The secret system Hamas uses to pay government salaries

  3. 3

    British woman sentenced over Thai drugs smuggling

  4. 4

    British man accused of trying to drown daughter-in-law in US pool

  5. 5

    Airport runway reopens after emergency landing

  6. 6

    MasterChef returns with sacked hosts but without their jokes

  7. 7

    France wildfire is 'catastrophe on an unprecedented scale', says PM

  8. 8

    Trump threatens 50% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil

  9. 9

    Could RFK Jr's move to pull mRNA vaccine funding be a huge miscalculation?

  10. 10

    Reeves must raise tax to cover £41bn gap, says think tank

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Destination X

  • Your latest reality TV obsession has landed on iPlayer

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Destination X
  • Rob Brydon welcomes you to Destination X

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Destination X
  • Get on board and play along at home

    • Attribution
      Game
    Destination X Game
  • Where the X are they off to next?

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Destination X
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.