Tarana Burke, the founder of the Me Too Movement, says she hopes society will one day view sexual violence in the same way they view smoking.
âIf someone lit up a cigarette (in a building) you would be appalled. But that wasnât the case 30 years ago. They didnât even think about it, they would smoke on planes and in offices. So you can change peopleâs thinking and shift the way people relate to one another,â said Burke, who spoke in Âé¶čAV Wednesday
âItâs not about your own health, itâs about other peopleâs health. So we have evidence in our world that there are shifts in understanding, thinking and in our culture, it can happen. We need to be aware of how do we re-imagine our lives so that we look down on sexual violence as something so distasteful, like smoking, like drug use⊠to make sure people donât have this experience in their lives.â
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Burke has been in sharp focus lately, but the activist has been pounding the pavement for her grassroots movement for 25 years. She first wrote âMe Tooâ on a piece of lined paper in 2006 when she was frustrated with the amount of sexual violence in the world and the way it is spoken about.
What the movement has become most known for, however, does not resemble what she set out to create.
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âI donât think it will ever be what it was when I started because it started as a grassroots movement in the (U.S.) South (Alabama),â said Burke.
âSo, I think that coming up on two years (since then), we are able to shift the narrative so more people understand itâs more expansive than what the media would lead you to believe. Itâs more expansive than a hashtag. Itâs all-encompassing in ways we donât really get to see represented on a day-to-day basis.â
People who said, âMe Tooâ were talking about the entire spectrum, she said, not just being harassed at work or what is happening in Hollywood.
âThey were talking about their real lived experiences,â Burke said.
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Burke said the media, while it has helped amplify her voice, has failed to share the narrative that features the spectrum of sexual violence.
The movement has not scratched the surface, questioning authority, sharing stories of people with different sexual violence experiences and expanding the coverage of the topic instead of focusing on the celebrity angle.
âI think the mediaâs role is a big one. I think that people have also been socialized in a way to think about sexual violence in a way that is incredibly small,â said Burke.
âThe other side of things is I wouldnât be here if it wasnât for the media. We wouldnât be able to have this platform and talk about sexual violence the way that we do.â
Burke spoke at UBC Okanagan Wednesday to help students understand their role in the Me Too Movement as students, as well as how to handle sexual violence on campus. Later she spoke at the Âé¶čAV Community Theatre.
Tickets are available at
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