In the “Me Too is a movement, not a moment” TedTalk, Tarana Burke starts off by saying how people should feel the need to stand up and fight for interrupting sexual violence. She explains how there is an importance of fighting for the dignity of the survivors that went through this traumatic time. By hearing all of the cases that are constantly ignored and knowing that our own president is a sexual predator makes her feel “numb”. This feeling is not from an absence of feelings, it is from an accumulation of feelings from all the trauma she hears about and having nothing to give to the survivors except only words of encouragement. Burke has been trying for many years to reassure survivors to make them feel heard and make them know they are not alone and by coming together, we are stronger. Once social media began posting about the Me Too movement, many people labeled it as the “witch hunt” or beginning of gender wars. This negative feedback being released makes it more difficult to move forward and does not let the survivors get the credit and acknowledgment they deserve. Burke gives out eye opening statistics over sexual abuse: ¼ girls and ⅙ boys are abused, 84% of transgender women are abused, indigenous people are three and a half times more likely to be abused, disabled people are seven times more likely to be abused, 60% of black girls experience abuse before the age of 18, as well as low wage workers. Burke further explains how power and privilege are the building blocks of sexual violence due to people in power making those who have little to no power feel vulnerable. Instead of using the power and privilege for violence, it should be used to serve and build the community. When she states that “trauma halts possibility, movement activates possibility”, she is emphasizing how what the trauma survivors go through makes them feel small and feel like nothing is possible, but by having a movement where people support them, they begin to feel a change and feel heard. She ends the TedTalk by informing the audience on how the movement started in 2006. She was in her small apartment as she began to write on how to build a movement based on empathy between survivors that would help feel like others are listening and care because we owe future generations a world free of sexual violence.
This TedTalk was very interesting to hear because of what has been going on around the world. There have been so many cases where people have been sexually abused and the whole case has been brushed off or seem as insignificant. Sexual abuse and violence is a sensitive topic and shows who has power or control of the media. Many times survivors are either heard but not helped, whereas the abusers have other people defend them by worrying about how the consequences affect their future. This is so absurd because it would only make sense to heal those who were violated and care about their futures. Due to the society we live in now, what we see in social media impacts how we live and by caring and listening to survivors and standing up to sexual violence, we will begin to see change. It is very important to make a difference around us if we want a better future for not only us, but the upcoming generations as well.
Source: Me Too is a movement not a moment | Tarana Burke
VH
Comments