Me Too Movement and its Legal Consequences to Control Sexual Offences & Sexual Harassment | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

In this article, we looked at the short- and long-term effects of the global social media movement MeToo. With self-report questionnaires among US participants recruited online, we followed changes in dismissal of sexual assault through four waves of measurement twice before the MeToo movement, at the peak of the MeToo, and six months later. Individual differences in gender, gender and feminist identification, and social dominance orientation were used to determine who will be most or least affected by the movement (SDO). Following MeToo, both men and women were less likely to reject sexual assault, and this trend continued six months later. SDO reduced this effect, with low-SDO men and high-SDO women having the greatest drop in dismissal of sexual assault. We found no evidence of a backlash impact, as previous article and vociferous critics of MeToo claimed. A possible explanation for SDO's unique influence is examined, as well as the implications for social change attempts. The restricting effects of legislation and legal language on public debate of sexual assault are highlighted by MeToo and other forms of consciousness-raising for sexual violence. We discovered that, ironically, in the instance of sexual violence, the law has the potential to undercut the goals and benefits of awareness-raising initiatives by private the experience of sexual assault and silencing its victims.