Inherently, having privilege isn't bad, but it's how you use it, and you have to use it in service of other people.
— Tarana Burke
Social media is not a safe space.
At the start of my career - not just Me Too, which is not the totality of my career - I wish I would have known that you don't have to sacrifice everything for a cause. And that self-care and self-preservation is also a tool that is necessary to do the work.
I wish men would stop telling me how they are not 'bad guys,' how they're 'an exception to the norm.'
I didn't start Me Too as a hashtag, and had I had the opportunity to, I probably wouldn't have done it that way. I think that what has happened subsequently has been beautiful to watch, but what concerns me is what all of these survivors are going to do now.
'Me Too' became the way to succinctly and powerfully connect with other people and give people permission to start their journey to heal.
We should collectively be talking to children - as young as kindergarten - about what consent looks like.
When you truly empathize with someone, you have to take into account all the things that make that person who they are.
Patriarchy doesn't just make men out to be ogres. Women buy into the patriarchy as well, and women make those comments as well, like, 'Boys will be boys.' Women have to undo that stuff, too.
Everybody has a lane. Everybody has something that they can contribute.
When the #MeToo movement started and went viral, it was everyday people all around the world. The fact that the stories continue to be about famous white women has everything to do with who the media places attention on.
Social media is so immediate and in your face that I know many people have been helped and many people who have been traumatised by their entire timeline filled with 'me too.'
The work of #MeToo is about healing. It's about healing as individuals and healing as communities.
I think that Me Too is for everybody. I think it's important that people feel validated.
As a community, we create a lot of space for fighting and pushing back, but not enough for connecting and healing.
Donald Trump has proven to be the kind of person who you can't reason with and who you can't have a logical conversation with - and who I can't imagine having a heart-to-heart conversation thinking that I would change something specifically about this person.
Sexual harassment does bring shame.
I don't think that every single case of sexual harassment has to result in someone being fired; the consequences should vary. But we need a shift in culture so that every single instance of sexual harassment is investigated and dealt with. That's just basic common sense.
I don't work for Hollywood.
There is always a way to get what you need, and I really believe in taking what you have to make what you need.
What does justice look like for a survivor? It'll mean different things to different communities.
If I found a healing tree in my backyard, and it grew some sort of fruit that was a healing balm for people to repair what was damaged, I'm not going to just harvest all of those fruits and say, 'You cant have this.' If I have a cure for people, I'm going to share it.
I have a lot of experience - not just with my 'Me Too' campaign but with survivors disclosing. I know that there is a wave of emotions that happens after that.
Men need to help reshape the conversation around consent.
Nobody can take you out of something, especially if you're the one who started it.
Smoking is definitely not cool anymore, and the folks who have worked against that have done a great job.
I'm driven by the gaps, the things that are missing, the areas where marginalized people exist - and where the least resources are available for them.
If we don't center the voices of marginalized people, we're doing the wrong work.
'Me too' became a term that was both succinct and powerful, and it was a way to ring up immediate empathy between survivors.
There are a number of people who are anxious to leave #metoo behind and move on, but I don't think people realize how short of a time we have been discussing this issue compared to how long this has been an issue.
We have to have something that reaches the masses. That's what I've always known Me Too could do.
I think that women of color use social media to make our voices heard with or without the amplification of white women. I also think that, many times, when white women want our support, they use an umbrella of 'women supporting women' and forget that they didn't lend the same kind of support.
I want the women I work with to find the entry point to where their healing is.
Violence is violence. Trauma is trauma. And we are taught to downplay it, even think about it as child's play.
The world doesn't realise I have a regular job!
'Me too' was just two words; it's two magic words that galvanised the world.
I just don't believe that 'no' is always a final answer - unless we're talking about consent.
There are a series of emotions that most survivors go through after disclosing. It starts with feeling great, like the weight on your shoulders has been lifted, and then you're alone with your thoughts, like, 'Why did I do that?' And then, what about the person who gets backlash?
People ask me what men can do, and I tell them, even if you're not a perpetrator, you should believe women - or queer folks - when they say that they have been violated.
I want survivors to know that healing is possible.
For every Harvey Weinstein, there's three or four thousand other pastors, coaches, teachers, uncles, cousins, and stepfathers who are committing the same crimes. We have to keep that in focus and we have to keep talking about it.
If you give young people enough information, they'll figure out what to do with it. They just need a little guidance.
What's interesting to me is that people engage survivors from a place of pity all the time - a place of sympathy.
Celebrity doesn't serve me unless it advances the work that I'm doing.
Part of the job is to find out what they need. #MeToo is about helping people find those resources.
I've never had a person come to me and say, 'I want to take down this person.' They come and say, 'I need help. This thing is killing me. It's weighing me down. It's sitting in the pit of my stomach.'
I don't want to get into splitting hairs. Trauma is trauma. I'm not in a position to quantify or qualify people's trauma.
In many regards, Me Too is about survivors talking to survivors.
I'm interested in talking to people and dealing with people who are set and ready for change and action. Who get it. And who are looking for solutions.
The work is more than just about the amplification of survivors and quantifying their numbers. The work is really about survivors talking to each other and saying, 'I see you. I support you. I get it.'
