#MeToo Moves to College Campuses

Last week, my 19 year-old daughter, who is home from college, emerged from her room to show me a Twitter thread she had just discovered. The thread, “EMU Predators Exposed”, was flooded with faces of men and stories written by women detailing how these guys had assaulted them. I sucked in air.

My first feeling was fear for these guys. I mean anyone could say anything, right? It’s anonymous. Someone could just have a grudge, put their picture here, and ruin their life.

Then, I began reading. Most of the guys were repeated. Same guy, similar story, different victim. The stories were detailed. The patterns were repeated. One guy had 18 allegations and was involved in church groups and leading student organizations. As I read, I was filled with both sorrow and a sense of liberation. It filled me with sorrow that these young women had experienced these assaults, as so many women have in so many generations before them. However, here was something different. These girls were speaking their stories. They were calling out their perpetrators in the public square, rather than keeping it a shameful secret. This was new and this was liberating.

As these girls told their stories on Twitter, they were being supported by other young women saying, “me too”. If they had been feeling stupid and telling themselves they shouldn’t have left the party with that guy, or that wouldn’t have happened…here were ten other girls who also made that decision (sometimes with the same boy). They could see they were not alone. Furthermore, by reading the stories of other girls, they could even more clearly identify what had happened to them as assault. Sometimes the grace we extend others exceeds what we give ourselves.

Not only could telling these stories on Twitter help these women feel less alone, it had the potential to protect other young women from ending up in the same circumstance. Women often have not been able to count on the system for support and protection, especially if they were drunk at a party and seen hanging out with the man who became their perpetrator. Here, these women were protecting each other by making the pictures and the stories public.

I started to think that some of the stories might actually inform men about what constitutes assault. According to RAINN, 11.2% of college students experience assault on campus. While some of the victims are men, and some of the perpetrators are women, the overwhelming majority of cases are women being assaulted by men. And we know that the reality is most instances go unreported. It is possible that some of these men committing assaults have been raised to think women are supposed to resist, and they are supposed to pressure them. Maybe reading how these women feel about what happened will awaken them to the truth.

The predator exposed lists quickly spread to other college campuses, and other insulated communities and neighborhoods. When I mentioned it to others, I could see the same initial fear arise in their eyes. The fear that anyone could defame anyone’s character on there. This is true. Still, for all of history, women have had their characters “defamed” for their sexual behavior. Not for forcing themselves on anyone, but for simply having sex. And, if they were assaulted, the blame quickly shifted to them anyway — and again — it was their character, their reputation, that took the hit.

This Twitter thread has switched that up. The women are anonymous. For once, their character is protected, and they are getting the chance to call out young men who have acted atrociously. People are capable of weeding through the stories, with the understanding that some could be false. But when you have the same young man being called to the carpet by 5, 10. 20 young women, it’s pretty clear he is dangerous.

By speaking out here, these women have taken their power back. They are empowering others to do the same. We will not be silent. You will be held accountable — if not in court — then here by us, for us. The fine hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I suck in air. The winds of change are blowing through, and it is something to behold.