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This has been a trying week to be a woman. The New York Times reported that powerful Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein has been settling sexual harassment cases for decades. Buzzfeed uncovered emails revealing that a senior editor at Broadly (Vice‘s women’s channel) corresponded with Milo Yiannopoulos mocking the feminist content on his own site. The Trump administration moved to roll back employers’ birth control mandate. All of these events compounded into a matter of days is enough to make any woman feel sick to her stomach about the misogyny of powerful men in this country.
With regards to one of these stories, though, women are fighting back in a moving way. Writer Anne Donahue asked Twitter on Thursday to share stories of their personal Harvey Weinstein encounters, and women are responding with devastating stories of sexual harrassment. In recalling and sharing these encounters, women are bonding together to support one another and to show exactly how often this happens in our society.
When did you meet YOUR Harvey Weinstein? I'll go first: I was a 17-yr-old co-op student and he insisted on massaging my shoulders as I typed
— Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) October 5, 2017
First job in publishing. Boss said I reminded him of his daughter and how a good daughter would sit on daddy's lap. Ended up testifying…
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) October 6, 2017
he trapped me in a bathroom and tried to get me to touch his dick even after i begged him to leave. reeeeal champ. he still has a job.
— raina douris (@RahRahRaina) October 5, 2017
#MyHarveyWeinstein began trending on Twitter as women continued to share their experiences of sexual harassment, often at the workplace.
#myharveyweinstein
A colleague who cornered me in a kitchen
"That doesn't sound like the kind of thing Dave would do"— Emily (@TomboyPrincess) October 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/SophiaCannon/status/916093600630476800
20.
First professional job. Walked into a mgr's office. He grabbed me & kissed me on the lips. I told no one. #myharveyweinstein— IChooseHope (@beth4hope) October 6, 2017
client forced himself on me. told by 2 male execs i should keep my mouth shut. guy’s in prison now for something else #MyHarveyWeinstein
— crawford (@FishTX) October 6, 2017
Creating a safe space for women to speak out about sexual harassment and uncomfortable workplace abuses of power is important, and blaming women for “not coming forward sooner” is never fair. As Amber Tamblyn tweeted, “Women. Have. Nothing. To. Gain. And. Everything. To Lose. By. Coming. forward. ”
