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#Metoo @EmmaBrianchon

By  Emma Brianchon

I’m surprised that nobody already wrote on the #Metoo Social Media trend on the blog. I mean, I don’t know about you, but my Twitter and my Facebook feeds were invaded by this alarming hashtag.

This year, in the advertising world, a huge number of awards were given to campaigns which empowered the women. My all-time favorite will still be the Nike one, but a lot of companies joined the trend. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YDrgoRpic8&list=PLXEPPgW7ng z1AW0BQFBE0hZX1zK2sA0Fn&index=32)

And still. There is still today a need to show people how it is like to be a woman. A harassed woman. A sexually assaulted woman. I don’t understand how it is still possible to happen in our Western, supposedly educated society. Have you seen the Instagram of that girl who takes pictures in front of her catcallers? https://www.instagram.com/dearcatcallers/

Just to think about it gives me goosebumps. Sadly, I think I can talk in the name of all the ladies in the school, and maybe that you know, I’ve been harassed / sexually assaulted. I mean, I can’t even count the number of time I’ve been followed, touched, cat-called, whistled or even worst. And I can’t count the number of time I asked myself if it was because I was dressing too sexy or because I was alone in the street so late. But come on, it is not our fault. The lack of respect and education is the problem.

And today, we, victims, feel the need to show it to all our friends on Facebook or Twitter, to try to make people understand how common it is. But it is not as if this was something new. It is, alas, not a new problem in our society, that you are afraid of letting your daughter, your female friend, your girlfriend to walk alone at night, sometimes we walk with whistles and pepper spray (!).
But hooray, France government decided to make it illegal to cat-call someone in the street. AS IF the street police is going to be at every corner, at any hour, and give the jerks a fee to teach them how to behave. Very clever France. But at least they start to understand the problem.

A French journalist, Sandra Muller, actually created a hashtag «#balancetonporc » which literally means « denounce your pig », to encourage women to tell the world who was the person behind the harassment. Which is the #myharveywinstein trend for France on Twitter right now.

And now here is my point.
I was wondering, why, WHY, don’t we encourage the people who did that once in their lives to take responsibilities, and ask THEM to write #Metoo, with the caption instead of us? I actually think it would be a big step forward for the men to recognize themselves that they have been disrespectful toward women, and take some courage to maybe help to change the mindset. It would maybe – who knows – show that they are ashamed and aware that their words or acts wounded women, and make them change.

And for whom it may concern, I am no feminazi or whatever.
I do consider myself as a feminist, but a laxist feminist. I laugh at jokes about women – to be honest, I laugh at a lot of bad jokes as well – but I truly believe in gender equality and respect.

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