<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Last October, influential hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was exposed and called out by women who accused him of sexually harassing them. Weinstein was phased out of his company and labeled as a sexual predator. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0This continued as more men and women called out men in authority who had committed these acts. Sexual assault was seen everywhere in the public eye, and became a fireable offense to those who perpetrated it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Actress Alyssa Milano, one of the Weinstein accusers, called for action and encouraged women to share their experiences of sexual assault with the hashtag MeToo. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Since then, the actions of these women have led to several abusers being called out and facing consequences for their actions, such as Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, Al Franken, Roy Moore and Charlie Rose, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0On April 18, Sinclair made their own statement on the issue during Green Dot Week. It included information on how to catch warning signs of a violent power based act (called a Red Dot) will take place, and ways to stop them from happening. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0As part of this event Amanda Hayden, Associate Professor of Religion, Humanities and Philosophy, spoke at a Sinclair Talks event on her own experience with this kind of violence in a subdued, safe and comforting environment, with no recording taking place.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0While Hayden participated in awareness events such as table discussions and administering Green Dot training, she eventually gained inspiration to speak to a crowd and tell her personal story. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cAfter my 3rd daughter was born, I was starting to have this feeling\u2026 This constant tugging telling me \u2018you need to tell this story,\u2019\u201d Hayden said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what form it would take but it told me I was going to do something to help other survivors who\u2019ve been through this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Hayden appreciated the conduct and supportiveness of the audience, and members who came after the speech to commend and empathize with her experience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThose who were there were there because they wanted to be there,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cIt was purely a talk for survivors, people who support survivors and people who want to know about this movement.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Hayden then noted that MeToo isn\u2019t a fad, as it has existed for over a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMost of us are familiar with it [#MeToo] because of the social media push last fall, and that was big. But that wasn\u2019t where it started. It actually started 12 years ago with Tarana Burke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Burke was a survivor who works with young girls who survived sexual abuse cases. She started telling survivors \u201cme too\u201d as way to emphasize with them, as part of her philosophy called empowerment through empathy, which emphasized strength in numbers. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0One thing Hayden stressed for Sinclair students was the importance of utilizing the several resources available to help survivors, such as the Green Dot training, Title IX, Student Affairs and Counseling Services.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0She also mentioned the importance of having empathy and compassion for victims and understanding their many reasons women may not report their assault cases immediately. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOne thing I think is really important to bring up is that so many people will immediately begin to be on the defense and question the timing. They\u2019ll question someone on their memory, or their complicity,\u201d Hayden said. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s legitimate reasons why women don\u2019t come forward,\u201d she said. \u201cThey might have children they\u2019re trying to protect, they might just be trying to live and not be killed by somebody. Let alone having to relive that experience, because it\u2019s horrible, it\u2019s traumatic, and most women aren\u2019t going to want to relive that and go back there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIf we can really stop with this shame and blame and actually talk and be authentic about it and upfront and realize that there\u2019s a reason why women stay silent [we\u2019ll be better off],\u201d Hayden said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Following the MeToo movement, the effects are still being seen today, with a cavalcade of powerful abusers facing consequences for the actions. The Weinstein Company is facing bankruptcy and has cancelled all non-disclosure agreements related to the Weinstein case. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0On Thursday April 26, Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at his home in 2004. Cosby had been under fire since 2014 when it was revealed he had been drugging and raping women for several years. This was the first major prosecution since the movement started.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Hayden then reflected on the movement as a whole: <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re in a historical moment, this is third wave feminism,\u201d she said. \u201cSurvivors knew this was happening, but what MeToo did was shine this global spotlight on the magnitude and made survivors realize they\u2019re not alone,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cIt\u2019s helped survivors to start to be heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Henry Wolski<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0Last October, influential hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was exposed and called out by women who accused him of sexually harassing them. Weinstein was phased out of his company and labeled as a sexual predator. \u00a0 \u00a0This continued as more men and women called out men in authority who had committed these acts. Sexual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":20046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2102,2104,3,2150],"tags":[1529,2000,2600,2218,1789],"class_list":["post-20045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-entertainment","category-tartan-news","category-world","tag-campus-events","tag-henry-wolski","tag-metoo","tag-sexual-assault","tag-womens-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/download-2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-5dj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20047,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20045\/revisions\/20047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExecutive Editor<\/p>\n