Alyssa Milano's 2017 tweet which made Tarana Burke's 2006 movement break the internet
This viral October 15, 2017 tweet by American actress Alyssa Milano is typically coined as the start of the #MeToo Movement across social media, and thereby a transitional point toward the digitized fourth wave of feminism. Milano posted to invite thousands of other women to comment #MeToo, simply indicating that they had been sexually harassed or assulted to showcase how many women have stories. However, #MeToo originated 11 years prior, being coined by Tarana Barke in 2006 on MySpace. Her original MySpace page dedicated to her movement is no longer available, which is why I chose to include this image of Milano's tweet rather than Barke's MySpace page in my addition to the People's Graphic Design Archive.
The #MeToo movement was created to give victims of sexual assult a digital space to share their stories and provide solidarity for one another. This movement was a pinacle moment for feminist history because it was designed on intersectional values, radical feminist theory and rejecting palatability by directly exposing abusive systems and giving everyone a voice. Social media, in this case MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, allows literally anyone to reach hundreds of thousands of people. Further, the age of social media was just beginning in the 2000s, so feminists used it to their advantage to radicalize their movement, which was always led by powerful white women. Now, ordinary women of all backgrounds could tell their #MeToo stories.
However, I do find it telling that #MeToo only really gained attention when a famous white woman, Alyssa Milano, spoke out against a powerful white man (Harvey Weinstein), as it was percieved as more significant than an "ordinary" black woman, Tarana Barke, telling her story. Barke did maintain her role as the face of the #MeToo movement, but it is interesting how even when this digital movement is designed to uplift scilenced groups, systemic racism and classism still controls whos stories are heard.
