#MeToo: Thousands respond to actor Alyssa Milano’s tweet to share sexual assault stories

Men and women took to social media platforms to speak up about surviving sexual assault or harassment after Hollywood actor Alyssa Milano urged people to tweet using hashtag MeToo to show the “magnitude of the problem.”

“Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,” Milano posted a note on Sunday on her Twitter handle.

The Charmed actor started the viral campaign after mass sexual assault charges cropped up against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.

Dozens of women - including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others - have come out with their accounts of how Weinstein sexually harassed them in the beginning of their careers, more and more are levelling similar allegations at the producer.

Milano’s tweet went viral as many as 27,000 people on Twitter used the hashtag to talk about sexual assault, including a simple “me too” from “Will and Grace” star Debra Messing and Oscar-winning actor Anna Paquin.

Me, too @Alyssa_Milano. When I was in the military, my date wanted sex. I said no. He ripped my shirt. I jumped out of the car. I was lucky.

— Lisa J (@LisaJanieMcG) October 16, 2017

As a sixth grader, a group of boys held me against a wall as they pulled up my shirt to "see if I stuffed my bra with Charmin or Bounty."

— Catie 🇺🇸Milspo (@catie4real) October 15, 2017

At work, At bars, At work, At Amusement Parks, At Work... the worst part is having to prepare my daughter for when it happens to her #MeToo

— Heather (@HeatherRS31) October 16, 2017

It wasn’t just women, the campaign saw men opening up as well.

“Me too. I don’t know if means anything coming from a gay man but it’s happened. Multiple times,” wrote Broadway actor Javier Muñoz.

“As a #gay male, it can be hard to talk my sexual past, but I stand with everyone who has ever been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed bc it happened to #MeToo,” William Morris tweeted.

I've worked at various gay bars in Houston since I was 19 and dealt with this at every single one from either ownership or management #MeToo

— Ivan (@ivansays___) October 16, 2017

I'm only doing this because some are under the impression guys are "safe" from this sort of thing happening to them. We're not. #MeToo

— Michael Chulsky (@mchulskywrites) October 16, 2017

Women in India also became a part of the global movement and shared how they face sexual harassment almost every day.

Unwanted attention and eyes that burn into you, inappropriate sexual comments, invading personal space to establish dominance, strangers touching body parts incrowds, body shaming jokes, and of course, needing to say "no" more than once ... Let me count the ways #MeToo

— Mahima Kaul (@misskaul) October 16, 2017

It still feels disgusting to recall that unauthorised touch. It is my body for me to celebrate, not theirs to violate. #MeToo

— Nikita Agarwal (@nikita9198) October 16, 2017

I was 4 when it happened with the first man. then 7 with another. then 9. then 11. then 13. then 19. then 20 *No penetration no rape* #MeToo

— Anandita Malhotra (@theopengates) October 16, 2017

Comedian Mallika Dua too participated in the campaign, saying that she was sexually harassed when she was only seven-years-old.

“Me too ... in my own car. My mother was driving while he sat at the back with his hand under my skirt the whole time. I was 7. My sister was 11. His hands went everywhere inside my skirt and on my sister’s back. My father who was in a different car dislocated the bastard’s jaw with his bare hands later that night,” she wrote on Facebook.