Alyssa Milano asserted that the #MeToo movement is far from over, and predicts that sexual assault survivors will continue to come forward.
“The amount of people that have come forward to tell their stories – whether it be a female or a male – has not dwindled at all and I think that that’s really powerful because it means we’re going to continue to tell these stories and not be silenced,” the actress and activist told Hill.TV co-host Buck Sexton in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
Milano also added that “ultimately we succeed when we hold those accountable for their abuses of power.”
The actress credits the movement’s success to the fact that the initiative has never been about one person and doesn’t have one leader, other than movement founder Tarana Burke.
Burke, who is a sexual assault survivor, first launched the Me Too initiative back in 2006, but Milano is credited with starting the hashtag around that movement that went viral, sparking a global conversation about sexual violence.
“This is really a movement for the people and I think that’s why it has been so successful, is that tweet was only a seed planted and everyone else in the world cultivated that seed to actually be somewhat of a forest,” Milano told Hill.TV co-host Buck Sexton.
Milano thinks the movement still has a long way to go, and emphasized the need for both more women and also more diversity in positions of power.
But she said that she’s starting to see policies reflective of the #MeToo movement in her own industry, citing a new code of conduct from the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union as just one example.
In February, SAG-AFTRA released a “Code of Conduct on Sexual Harassment,” which was part of the union’s broader initiative to combat harassment and protect some 160,000 members.
The new code of conduct was released in direct reaction to allegations surrounding disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
In May, Weinstein turned himself into New York police. He was charged with rape and other accounts of sexual abuse against two women.
— Tess Bonn
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