“There’s sexual harassment over here and you shouldn’t conflate it with rape. Which is true; those are two very different things. But they’re on the same spectrum. Sexual harassment is like the gateway drug. It’s the entry point.”— Tarana Burke, theguardian.com
“Me Too, in a lot of ways, is about agency. It’s not about giving up your agency, it’s about claiming it.”— Tarana Burke, theguardian.com
“What does justice look like for a survivor? It’ll mean different things to different communities.”— Tarana Burke, thenation.com
“What about the person whose family didn’t know until they saw it on social media? What if for a survivor social media is your self-care and you’re bombarded with all these posts? It’s really complicated.”— Tarana Burke, thenation.com
“There are a series of emotions that most survivors go through after disclosing. It starts with feeling great, like the weight on your shoulders has been lifted, and then you’re alone with your thoughts, like, “Why did I do that?” And then what about the person who gets backlash?”— Tarana Burke, thenation.com
“I don’t think that every single case of sexual harassment has to result in someone being fired; the consequences should vary. But we need a shift in culture so that every single instance of sexual harassment is investigated and dealt with.”— Tarana Burke, theguardian.com
“The patriarchal power structure might sometimes be hamhanded in enforcing its oppressive norms, but often it’s tricky. It hangs back amid an organic feminist boom and then disguises itself amid the earnest supporters, using their revolutionary vocabulary to argue for the status quo. It sows division…”— Claire Fallon, huffingtonpost.com
“The backlash has decided it’s here, but that doesn’t mean we have to let it crush us. It’s not the ’90s anymore.”— Claire Fallon, huffingtonpost.com
“Find a woman who will sell out solidarity for a pat on the head and a cookie from the establishment, and use her identity as a dodge for claims of overt misogyny. If you’re really successful, this tactic will bear fruit for generations, as the precocious Katie Roiphes of yesteryear become the season…”— Claire Fallon, huffingtonpost.com
“But where Jones frames this as a clash between feminist factions ― 'One group of feminists will try to define sexual assault and another group will call them alarmists' ― it appears rather to be a modern elaboration of an age-old antifeminist tactic: Make it clear that you’ll give top dollar and top…”— Claire Fallon, huffingtonpost.com
“The sharper sting comes from a more intimate betrayal: woman after woman using her prestigious media platform and her disingenuous claims of feminist identity to undercut a movement that uplifts women’s voices and questions sexual norms that harm them.”— Claire Fallon, huffingtonpost.com
“An uncool thought to have: 'is that guy walking in the dark behind me a rapist? Never mind, he's Asian.'”— Lena Dunham, dailymail.co.uk