Celebrities all over America have jumped the laudable bandwagon of publicly denouncing inappropriate sexual behavior, on Sunday afternoon “Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later” star Alyssa Milano shared on her Twitter account a post that is going viral, that invites women to use the #MeToo hashtag if they have been victims of sexual abuse.
Me too.
Suggested by a friend: “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.”
It hasn’t been a complete day since Alyssa Milano called on her female peers to share their painful personal experiences with sexual harassment and/or assault, and the #MeToo hashtag has already been tweeted over half a million times according to a Twitter spokeswoman on Monday.
If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017
The former Melrose Place actress tweeted her powerful message in the wake of the many sexual assault allegations surrounding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. She also posted the same message on Facebook, where it has also been shared nearly 3,000 times.
Me too
— Anna Paquin (@AnnaPaquin) October 15, 2017
Thousands of women from all over the world, including X-Men franchise star and Academy Award Winner Anna Paquin and NCIS staple Pauley Perette, responded Milano’s message and also posted the viral message on Twitter and Facebook. By Sunday night, #MeToo was Twitter’s largest trending topic.
#MeToo And I want you too know, THEY will always be WRONG, but YOU can end up STRONG!
— Pauley Perrette (@PauleyP) October 16, 2017
In all likeliness, the message has been shared well over a million times (it will if not though) by both women and men, but Twitter has for the moment only measured the posts that use the #MeToo hashtag, Anna Paquin for example, did not use the hashtag.
https://twitter.com/PattyArquette/status/919677343131734016
Alyssa Milano’s original tweet has been liked over 36,000 times and has been retweeted over 18,000 times, performing several times better than her Facebook post.
This. #MeToo https://t.co/oYiyeMxvuy
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) October 15, 2017
Other actresses to have supported and retweeted the message have been Rosario Dawson, Debra Messing, Suki Waterhouse, Gretchen Carlson, Allison Tolman, Rena Sofer, Lea Thompson, Laura Dreyfuss, Sam Donovan, Tatiana Maslany, Lady Gaga, Patricia Arquette, among others.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 15, 2017
Broadway actor and HIV and cancer survivor Javier Muñoz, better known for his role as Alexander Hamilton in the highly criticized by Donald Trump American musical Hamilton, also retweeted Alyssa Milano’s message, even though he is not a woman. “Me too. I don’t know if means anything coming from a gay man but it’s happened. Multiple times.” wrote the singer.
Me too. I don’t know if means anything coming from a gay man but it’s happened. Multiple times.
— Javier Muñoz (@JMunozActor) October 15, 2017
This article was inspired by the Hollywood Reporter // Sexual Assault Movement #MeToo Reaches Nearly 500,000 Tweets