Argumentative Essay /Prompt Choose

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Argumentative Essay

Me too movement is one of the most important, powerful and impactful civil rights movements, which has spread across the globe. The term ‘Me too’ is not new for society, as it has been echoing for the past decade at the least. However, it only became powerful and got recognition in the United States of America during the past two years. Women have always been the subject of sexual abuse, violence, and harassment in each and every field of life. Even the women, who do not work in offices and are enrolled in some educational institute or are just simply housewives, are also harassed at least one times in their lives. The harassers are the male members of the society, who are not punished, because most of the women do not take stand against their abuse as they threaten them to the extent that they are unable to speak for themselves. There have been a number of cases, where young girls and even women were raped and even after public identifying the criminals, they were unable to get them punished by the law. The ‘Me too’ which initially emerged due to the sexual assault allegations of a Hollywood film producer, has now reached to sexual assaulters and harassers in each and every part of the society, irrespective of their powerful status. ‘Me too’ may have been one of the most impactful civil right movements of the modern era, which provides the confidence and support to the women to speak up against their assaulters and get time punished by the law and wants to change contemporary liberal democracy in the United States of America, by enabling the women to become the agents of social change and serve the society.

Sexual violence and abuse against women is not a new phenomenon for society as women have always struggled to get their due rights and recognition in society. Back to the time of slavery, the African American women were sexually harassed and abused as well by their white masters, who then forced them to raise, their illegal children. Most of the African American women did not only face the slavery in the social context but in the sexual context as well, as their white masters had the right to abuse them and were not punished by the society. Apart from the African American women, the white women also had to face the abuse of their husbands or other male members of the white community (Mackinnon, 46). They were not allowed to file the complaints regarding sexual misconduct against any male member of the society, because of the control of the men over different departments of the society in addition to it women were confined to their homes and they had to struggle for years, in order to get their due rights from the society. Seneca Falls convention, suffrage movement are examples of the struggle of the women during the nineteenth and twentieth century (Clair, et al., 4).

Things have changed a lot in the twenty-first century, however, some of them are secretly the same and the women still have to struggle for them. One of the most important is the gender inequality in the workforce. The society is still biased towards the women and they are not allowed equal opportunities of progress and recognition in their workplace. They are not rewarded for their efforts and the dilemma is that they are sexually abused and harassed by their superiors, in order to get their due recognition and support in the workplace. The superiors not only threaten them to stay silent in order to ensure the continuation of their jobs but also some time threaten them that they would kill them or harm their families if they tried to file any complaints against them (Tobias, 13). The things which have changed greatly in the twenty-first century is the silence of the women after facing the abuse or harassment and getting afraid of the threats of their assaulters. The ‘Me too' which started almost a decade ago in the united states of America has now become more impactful and reached other parts of the globe as well, as women of different countries of the world are publicly revealing the dark faces of the assaulters and demanding justice from society (Abrams, 749).

In the United States of America, women have emerged as greater forces of social change, by not getting influenced by the influential status of the men of the society. According to an article by the New York Times, almost two hundred men in the United States of America have lost their jobs and position in the society after being accused of sexual assault and harassment, which was proved in the court. A great number of these men belong to the entertainment industry, as well as news media agency, who have harassed multiple women, in order to stop their progress as well as maximize their benefits. In addition to it, there are a number of other men belonging to the field of politics and even justice system which have abused the women who are now receiving their punishments. The president of the United States of America, Donald Trump is also among the people who have been revealed as sexual abusers by not only one woman but multiple women, however, they were not able to prove anything against him, which is the main reason he is still in power. The women had to face the glass ceiling, as well as harassment at their workplaces, due to their position and competence, as the men were unable to see them progressing to the higher positions than them. However, after the criminal proceedings against hundreds of men, the women are provided with the opportunities of heading the organizations and getting rewarded for their efforts and services (Carlsen et al., 1).

‘Me too’ movement wants to change contemporary liberal democracy in the United States of America by making the criminal justice system strong enough to take action against the wrong men of their society, irrespective of their social or political status. In addition to it, the movement wants to give confidence to the women that whatever happened to them was not due to their fault and they need to speak up about it, in order to get the criminals punished. Another important objective of the movement is to not let the women suffer at their workplaces due to the criminals and women should be promoted to higher ranks, instead of the criminals. According to the movement, the social critique is necessary in order to improve the system and working of the society and to make it clear to the society that things cannot work in that way and need to be dealt properly, in order to ensure the progress of all the sections of the society. Protests and critique can fundamentally change the society by motivating the lawmakers to improve the existing laws to make the new ones to ensure the safety and security of all the citizens, in addition to helping them get their due equal rights of progress in the society (Kreis, 1).

‘Me too' is one of the most impactful civil rights movements of the twenty-first century, which has motivated the women to not feel ashamed but raise their voices against the men who have sexually abused or harassed them. A number of prominent personalities from the entertainment, as well as new media agencies of the United States of America, have been identified as harassers and are now facing the charges of their actions, while some of them are still roaming free in the society. The movement wants to change the liberal democracy of the United States of America by introducing and implementing the laws which would assure the safety of the women and the punishment of the criminals.

Works Cited

Abrams, Jamie R. "The# MeToo movement: An invitation for a feminist critique of rape crisis framing." U. Rich. L. Rev. 52 (2017): 749.

Carlsen, A., et al. "MeToo brought down 201 powerful men. Nearly half of their replacements are women." New York Times (2018).

Clair, Robin Patric, et al. "# MeToo, sexual harassment: an article, a forum, and a dream for the future." Journal of Applied Communication Research (2019): 1-19.

Kreis, Anthony Michael. "Defensive Glass Ceilings." George Washington Law Review 88 (2019).

Mackinnon, Catharine. "Rape: On coercion and consent." Writing on the body: Female embodiment and feminist theory(1997): 42-58.

Tobias, Sheila. Faces of feminism: An activist's reflections on the women's movement. Routledge, 2018.