Harvey Weinstein, Ben Affleck, Steven Seagal, Oliver Stone, Roy Price, Bob Weinstein, James Toback, Kevin Spacey, Andy Dick, Jeremy Piven, Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner, and now even Alec Baldwin. These are names of Hollywood A-listers who have been accused of sexual assault and harassment. These names all came to the spotlight after allegations against Harvey Weinstein came out about a month ago. 

As of Oct. 30, Harvey Weinstein has been accused of sexually assaulting or harassing over 80 women, Newsweek reported. Since this whole debacle started, I’ve seen countless of posts on Facebook and Twitter saying “me too.” The #MeToo movement has been around for several years and was founded by an activist named Tarana Burke. Burke originally came up with the movement to stick up for African American women. But since the Harvey Weinstein allegations came out, “me too” or #MeToo has become a rallying cry. I have contemplated on making a “me too” post myself, because although I’ve never been assaulted, I have been sexually harassed. 

And that’s just the thing: we women should not be afraid to own up to that crap. It took some women and men years for them to share their stories about Harvey Weinstein. One actress even told the media to “watch out for Harvey Weinstein” back in 2005, and no one got the clue! But the purpose of #MeToo is to be a platform for both men and women to share their stories on sexual assault and harassment. 

Coincidentally (also after the Harvey Weinstein allegations came out), French actresses have spoken out against men who have sexually assaulted and harassed them. Instead of using #MeToo, the French used #BalanceTonPorc, which translates to “squeal on your pig.” The campaign was started by Sandra Muller, a French journalist who shared that her boss had sexually harassed her. After she used #BalanceTonPorc, it went viral, with 10,000 women responding.

Something that we can learn from this entire process is that France is actually pushing towards political change. We, unfortunately, have a president who has been publicly accused of assaulting and harassing over 15 women. Baldwin said, “What an idiot Harvey Weinstein is. He could have gotten away with it all if only he had gotten himself elected president,” which elicited some “oohs” from the crowd.