CNN: Prof. Gómez Discusses Where #MeToo Is Going After 5 Years of Social Justice Work
In 2017, sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein catapulted the #MeToo movement into mainstream public discourse. CNN spoke to Jennifer Gómez, BUSSW assistant professor and trauma expert, about how the last five years have shifted cultural perceptions of accountability, sexual violence, abuse, and harassment, as well as future steps society needs to take to protect vulnerable and marginalized people.
Excerpt from “In 5 Years Of #MeToo, Here’s What’s Changed – And What Hasn’t” by Leah Asmelash, originally published on CNN:
Just the fact that people can talk more openly about sexual violence and abuse, Gómez said, is significant – and a far cry from past decades.
She used the singer R. Kelly as an example. In the 1990s, his sexual abuse of Black teen girls was well known, she said. But it wasn’t until post-#MeToo that he was criminally convicted.
In the 1980s and 1990s, there was an awareness of domestic violence and child abuse, but it was centered on White women and some boys, Gómez said. So movements against sexual violence only reached those specific segments of the population.
What has set the #MeToo movement apart is its coalition across race and genders, she said – it acknowledged the systems of oppression non-White, non-cisgender or non-heterosexual women might have to also deal with, like racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism or classism.
‘Part of what we’re seeing, which is positive, is this increasing awareness of ties to the system,’ Gómez said. ‘It’s more than just sexism against White women.’”