The Number Of Women Sexually Harassed Or Assaulted Will Shock You

If you’ve been on Facebook or Twitter, you may have seen thousands of women posting “me too” as their status.

The goal of the “me too” campaign is to raise awareness at the striking number of women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted.

And while many men try to downplay the notion women are actually sexually harassed, the “me too” campaign reveals the dark underlining secret women have been forbidden to share, until now.

It all started when liberal actress Alyssa Milano tweeted: “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.”

Women responded to Milano’s tweet in massive numbers tweeting out and sharing “me too.”

And it wasn’t just dozens. Or hundreds. Or even thousands.

Sadly, hundreds of thousands of women stuck together and bravely shared the “me too” status, opening the conversation and proving sexual assault is common and happens more than people would like to admit.

Sexual harassment transcends Party lines. It’s not about being a liberal or conservative. Sexual assault knows no color, demographic, or age.

It happens to teens. It happens to adults. All races and socioeconomic statuses.

No one is really ever safe from sexual harassment, and as the “me too” campaign shows, it happens all the time.

Women of both parties have been sexually assaulted and harassed, and have had to endure decades of crude comments.

No woman deserves to be harassed by a man, just for being a female.

Some men scoff at the thought women are actually sexually harassed. They claim silence equals consent or complicity.

But it’s not always that easy to speak out, especially when a woman has a career and has to go against her boss.

You see, many of the women who are sexually harassed work in high-profile jobs, in an industry dominated by men.

If they speak up, they are going against a legal army full of people willing to defend the accused man.

But even women who aren’t in a high-power career face sexual harassment. Whether it’s taking their children to the grocery store, or at the gym, some men find the sick need to harass women, and somehow think they are entitled to whistle or catcall as she walks down the street.

And overall, there is the overarching stigma and shame that comes with being sexually harassed, and not knowing where to turn.

The Washington Post reported:

“Her, too: Lisenbee, 32, a surgical technician in Oklahoma City, was assaulted as a teenager. So she copied and pasted the message as her own status before going to bed. But at 2 a.m. she woke, unable to get back to sleep, she recalled later Monday…

Stories like hers exploded across social media Sunday and Monday, among women galvanized by the abuse and harassment allegations involving Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

On Twitter, the #MeToo hashtag had been tweeted nearly half a million times as of Monday afternoon; more than 600,000 people were talking about it on Facebook.

Celebrities like Alyssa Milano and Rosario Dawson first helped to amplify the hashtag on Sunday afternoon, as thousands of women shared that they were victims of harassment and assault. Some contributed wrenching accounts of romantic overtures by bosses, catcalls from strangers and sexual assault. Others simply chose to write, “Me too,” offering no further details.”

Women need to stick together and support one another.

And men need to speak up if they see women being sexually harassed. There are plenty of good men who rightfully condemn this type of behavior, as they should.

Sexual assault is never okay, and is never “warranted.”

As Mommy Underground previously reported, one woman was jogging and had to endure comments from a stranger who determined she was “asking to be raped” because of her jogging attire.

And that’s just one example of many.

It’s time to put an end to the sexual harassment towards women, and if more women speak up, and band together, combined with men calling out other men, perhaps men who sexually harass women will learn their actions are unacceptable, and won’t be tolerated.

If you’ve been a victim of sexual assault, please know you are not alone. You have an army behind you, of both men and women, who will stand behind you and speak up against any type of inappropriate behavior.

Are you surprised to learn hundreds of thousands of women have been sexually harassed or assaulted?

What are your thoughts on the “me too” campaign? Does it bring enough awareness to the issue?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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