Before the year is over, I wanted to write about some of the major topics talked about within the news during 2017. So for this week, here is the first of two that created movement and discussion within the U.S.:
Over this past year, there has been many topics or issues brought to the news. One of the biggest topics in the news that has caused a lot of discussion throughout the nation is sexual harassment and/or abuse. From Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer, this year has been full of allegations causing a big light to shed on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. When looking into all the major scandals, it is clear that sexual harassment has been happening within the workplace for years and years. But it was in 2017, that a tremendous amount of men and women found their voice and spoke out.
Later this year, hundreds of people came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace. According to AJC.com, forty scandals within the workplace in the media, political and other industries have come to light after the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Which in October, the New York Times released a detailed report of allegations against Weinstein, including actresses Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd, that came forward, and since then a flood of women have spoken about their accounts with Weinstein. I talked to college student, Zoha Zaki, about why some people have been afraid or hesitant to come forward until recently. She felt that, “it’s difficult to put yourself out there to the public in such a vulnerable way. This subject is so personal to people everywhere and to talk about it to the general public is terrifying. Along with that being said, another issue arises, are people going to believe you? Or shame you?”
A movement was started as a result of many coming forward to tell their story. #MeToo started trending this year, letting many express publicly that them too had experienced sexual harassment or assault. Within 24 hours of it first being tweeted, #MeToo had been tweeted almost a half of a million times. Actress, Alyssa Milano, started the movement by tweeting to women encouraging them to use the hashtag if they had ever been sexually harassed or abused. The Atlantic reported that, “The goal of #MeToo, as Milano’s friend told her, was simply to give people a sense of ‘the magnitude of the problem.’ Waking up to a feed dominated by women discussing their experiences of harassment and assault, it turns out, will do that.” The #MeToo movement this year definitely gave women and also men the courage to express their experiences and comfort others that have experienced similar events.
There is still a lot to be done in regards to sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace or anywhere for that matter. But, this year a lot of allegations were brought forward and a lot of jobs were taken away or damaged in result. The most current sexual harassment scandal that damaged a career was with Matt Lauer. Lauer worked as a leading anchor for NBC’s Today Show for 20 years. With allegations arising, Lauer was fired from this positon leaving his co-workers stunned by the whole situation. When I talked to Zoha Zaki about her reaction to all these allegations that surfaced over this year she expressed that, “I think it’s definitely something that needs to be talked about, these types of situations shouldn’t ever been pushed to the side. And on the other hand I also think there should be more evidence to all of these allegations. It’s one thing to actually sexually assault someone but to be accused of doing it when someone is innocent is something that shouldn’t be publicized because of reputation issues that person has to deal with for the rest of their lives.” The issue of sexual harassment and abuse has been a huge topic of decision in nation during 2017. There is still a lot to be done to make people more aware about this issue and how to talk about their experiences. This has been going on for years and years, and it is now being discussed on a larger scale across the globe. 2018 looks like it will be a year of more movement and change.
