The #MeToo era has been known for encouraging women to speak up after years of silence and bringing more awareness to a culture of sexual assault. The term #MeToo was originally coined by sexual assault victim Tarana Burke on Twitter in 2006 but became more popular when Alyssa Milano tweeted in 2017 saying, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” From there the movement gained traction with women from Olympic gymnasts to Hollywood actresses speaking out against entertainment, sports, and business leaders for sexual misconduct. Even more women and men allied themselves with those who had been abused and lent their support to the movement.

Towards the beginning of the #MeToo era in early 2017, the first annual Women’s March took place after Donald Trump’s inauguration to protest his presidency in a great display of unity. As was the case for many other men, the #MeToo movement brought up sexual misconduct allegations including harassment, groping, and rape, against Trump by 26 different women, according to Eliza Relman from The Insider. However, this protest was not just to call attention to the issues of sexual abuse against women but also for social justice for LGBTQ+ people, people of color, immigrants, and people with disabilities. In January 2018, a group of more than 300 Hollywood women formed an anti-harassment coalition called Time’s Up. These early acts in the movement were characterized by creating safe communities for women to speak up and fighting for social justice.

This same spirit is what spurred the change in the culture of the American workplace. Prior to the #MeToo era, women who spoke out about being sexually abused were often punished by demotion, being denied a promotion, reduced pay and/or hours, or even being fired. Since the start of the movement, many companies have taken steps to address sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Many employers have eliminated parts of contracts that require confidentiality in the case of harassment. Anti-harassment training is now also required in many states to reduce instances of sexual misconduct. It is not clear that these efforts are working, however, because there are more allegations being made, but that may also be because the movement has encouraged women to speak out more.

As #MeToo has progressed throughout the years, the movement has become more about obtaining justice for the abused and for convicted abusers. Many high-profile people have been arrested and “canceled” due to the rise of #MeToo. One of the first of these people was Harvey Weinstein, the man that sparked the movement when Ashley Judd first accused him in October 2017. According to Sara Moniuszko and Cara Kelly from USA Today, over 80 women in the film industry have accused Weinstein of abuse, and in 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Recently on February 2, Weinstein got an extra 16 years for additional charges of rape and misconduct. On the same day, R. Kelly was sentenced to another year in addition to the 30 years he is already facing for longstanding allegations of sexual abuse and child pornography. Another high-profile perpetrator was Bill Cosby, whose case was one of the first big trials of the movement, ending in Cosby being sentenced to 10 years for sexual assault in 2018.

Regardless, there are still many people who have been accused of sexual misconduct and have not been convicted for any of the allegations. Many of them have experienced cancel culture, a custom that gained a lot of traction during #MeToo. Kevin Spacey, for instance, was accused of sexual misconduct against minors by at least 20 young men, but the charges against him were brought to light past the statute of limitations for a crime of that magnitude. A lawsuit was still filed by actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed he was assaulted by the drunk actor in a bar at age 14. Although Spacey was not found liable or held legally accountable for his actions, his career took a turn for the worse. The Oscar winner found himself losing honors he was about to receive, losing his partnership with Netflix, and losing acting jobs. Additionally, the Kevin Spacey Foundation, a non-profit to help budding actors, closed. Another example of this is Woody Allen, a renowned man in the film industry. Allen was accused of grooming and molesting his daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was a child. To make matters worse, he married his girlfriend’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, when she was 26 and he was 61. Although the allegations never resulted in a trial, Allen was punished in a different way. Almost all of his past famous collaborators turned against him, and he has not received much work since.

As seen with Kevin Spacey and other high-profile men, many accused of sexual abuse were “canceled” or convicted, but many others still have gotten away unpunished. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, for instance, is a well-loved astrophysicist and television personality, but he was not immune to the era. In December 2018, Tyson was accused of sexual misconduct by four different women, three of them scientists or aspiring scientists, which damaged their careers. The other allegation was from his assistant on his show Cosmos, who was fired a few days after the incident. Despite the allegations, the charges against Tyson were cleared, he maintains his job as the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and his two shows continue to be produced. Another example is James Franco, an eccentric Golden Globe winner known for acting in and directing a number of productions. In early 2018, Franco was accused of sexual misconduct by five different women, mostly in the context of his film school, where he used his students seemingly exclusively for nude scenes in his films, according to Daniel Miller and Amy Kaufman from the Los Angeles Times. Franco has also been accused of inappropriate behavior while filming nude scenes in his past movies.

Although these men got away relatively unscathed, the aforementioned cases of “canceled” men such as Spacey and Allen are some of the prime examples of why the #MeToo movement has been receiving a growing amount of criticism. The movement is now characterized by an aggressive “cancel culture,” where individuals are essentially erased from society without due process. This culture has encouraged toxicity on social media, too, a good example being that of the highly-publicized trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Depp was accused of sexual and domestic violence allegations, causing him to lose his iconic role in Pirates of the Caribbean. The claims brought against Depp by Heard were later declared false, leading to Heard losing her role in Aquaman. Both Depp and Heard were subjected to trial by media and ended up getting “canceled” by many. While the conviction of abusers is always a good thing, this culture of “canceling” gives a new meaning to punishment. The mass and capricious judgments of the internet have dominated the #MeToo movement at the expense of its original purpose: to give a voice to women. The women who started the movement, such as Tarana Burke and Alyssa Milano, should never be forgotten for encouraging women to share their stories and spurring an era that prioritizes the validity and voices of women.

Information retrieved from the Chicago Tribune, CNN, USA Today, and Business Insider. Yet, this is not to say the course does not address important topics anymore. As The Time reports, the curriculum still includes important topics such as progress made during the Reconstruction era, the roots of today’s mass incarceration system, in-depth lessons on the speeches of Malcolm X, and Black Panther Party’s free breakfast and medical programs, to name a few. The true concern hidden behind every curriculum change, though, remains in the innate objections of educational systems to reject taboo subjects in their classrooms. Schools should be bias-free learning environments, where every topic is addressed unashamedly. Like Vox reports from Yale University historian David Blight, AP African American studies highlights this broader issue, “How do we enhance public schools and teachers?”

Information retrieved from the College Board, Vox, Time, and The Guardian.