Reclaiming Stigmatized Narratives: The Networked Disclosure Landscape of #metoo. Maria Bevacqua, Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault.Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.Brooke Foucault Welles, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Northeastern University.Juhu Thukral, Founder + Principal, Apsara Projects LLC.Kenyora Parham, Executive Director, End Rape on Campus Nancy Parrish, Founder and CEO, Protect Our Defenders.Moira O’Neil, PhD, Vice President of Research and Interpretation, FrameWorks Institute.Denise Beek, Chief Communications Officer, “me too”.This case study explores how the #MeToo Movement is shifting long-dominant narratives that have contributed to the societal acceptance of high levels of sexual violence in this country. This time, a shift in the overarching narrative about sexual violence in America, driven by the survivors themselves, has the potential to bring about real institutional and behavioral change. This increased awareness and activism suggests that this time, the issue may not simply recede into the hidden corners of society where it has traditionally lurked, out of sight and out of mind for people without a direct reference point or experience. Today, a new movement under the leadership of survivor advocates and activists is growing in size and influence. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Millions of survivors of sexual violence, not only in the United States but around the globe, took to social media and spoke out, disclosing the harms and trauma they had experienced, and within a short time, hundreds of abusers, most of them men, were toppled from positions of power. In late 2017, the #MeToo Movement suddenly burst onto the national stage and dominated the news cycle for weeks on end. Sometimes prosecutions or incremental policy reforms follow, and then the problem drops from public view until the next flare-up occurs. In the past, scandals have erupted in the military, on campuses, within the priesthood, or involving a very public figure and generated media attention. The prevalence of sexual assault in the United States, defined broadly to include not only acts of violence, but also sexual harassment and intimidation, has been the subject of media coverage and on the public policy agenda in fits and starts for more than forty years.
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