Five Articles to Read When #MeToo Starts Trending 

February 2, 2020
By Dana Rosenwasser

Championed by Tarana Burke, the #MeToo movement has created a permanent space for us to discuss and understand rape and sexual assault. When survivors from all walks of life come forward about their experiences around rape and sexual assault on social media, #MeToo can start trending for days and cause many of the same conversations to take place.

Safe Horizon has been helping and advocating on behalf of survivors of sexual assault for decades. To help you navigate all the possible conversations that take place when #MeToo starts trending, here are five helpful articles:

1. “How Are We Still Here?” Four Black Survivors and Advocates Talk Sexual Assault
   1. “It’s really difficult I think as a black man to come forward and be honest about the way in which they are looked at and dealt with as survivors of it, not perpetrators.” – Terry Crews
2. What To Say When Someone Tells You They’ve Been Sexually Assaulted Or Harassed
   1. When people you know — friends, family members, distant acquaintances, coworkers — come forward about their experiences with sexual assault or harassment on social media, it can be hard to know what to say.
3. How To Talk To Your Significant Other About Your History Of Sexual Trauma
   1. Having that conversation on a public platform takes unimaginable courage, but there’s another conversation that’s no less difficult for women and men who’ve experienced sexual trauma: talking through what happened with a significant other.
4. A Note to Survivors Who Aren’t Ready to Share Their Sexual Assaults
   1. “For those who aren’t comfortable or ready or wanting to disclose, that’s totally okay and totally normal. Everyone’s entitled to make their own choices, especially when in that act of abuse or violence, their choice has been taken away from them.”
5. Why Would Someone Recant Abuse Allegations?
   1. Recanting sexual assault allegations happens more often than we think. For one, survivors may feel like nobody in their community believes them. Everyone has their own coping mechanism. It’s about what feels like a safe choice for the survivor.

We encourage all survivors to choose the option that is right for them. If you’re in New York City, you can access resources by calling Safe Horizon’s Rape and Sexual Assault Hotline, 1-212-227-3000. One of our advocates will listen without judgment and support you in figuring out possible next steps.