MeToo

American  

[mee-too] / ˈmiˈtu /

Also #MeToo or Me Too

noun

1. a social media hashtag of solidarity used by survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault in a public disclosure of a past or current personal experience in order to demonstrate the prevalence of abuse.

   I never reported my boss because I couldn’t afford to lose my job. #MeToo

2. a social movement drawing attention to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other abuses of authority, especially those resulting from gendered power imbalances in social institutions.

   MeToo is revealing the tragic common thread in the lives of Hollywood stars, short-order cooks, soldiers, prisoners, students, etc.—no corner of society is immune to this epidemic of abuse.

---

adjective

1. relating to or noting this social movement: a powerful #MeToo spokesperson;

   the MeToo era;

   a powerful #MeToo spokesperson;

   the Me Too backlash.

verb (used with object)

MeToo’d, MeTooed, MeTooing

1. to identify or accuse (one’s abuser) publicly in a claim of sexual harassment or sexual assault: Everyone warned her that MeTooing the chair of her dissertation committee would ruin her academic career.

   How should celebrities who’ve been MeToo’d make amends and start over?

   Everyone warned her that MeTooing the chair of her dissertation committee would ruin her academic career.

Etymology

Origin of MeToo

Coined in 2006 by Tarana Burke, African American civil rights activist (born 1973)

Example Sentences

It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement that she saw it for the awful episode it was.

From The Wall Street Journal

None of these positions would have seemed remarkable a few years ago, when tech companies exhorted their employees to “bring your whole self to work” and employees responded en masse by engaging in #MeToo and Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

From The Wall Street Journal

But over the past decade, after the growth of the #MeToo movement and the release of millions of Epstein files that have implicated numerous people in powerful positions, survivors have been more willing to speak up about their experiences.

From Salon

We’ve seen the advent of marriage equality, the #MeToo movement, the Black Lives Matter movement—there’s just been a lot of change afoot, and we’re seeing a real backlash to that.

From Slate

But its treatment in general showed "there are still areas where the #MeToo movement has not yet breached the sound barrier, chiefly in men's football," she added.

From Barron's