Democracy fulfilled: When hashtag becomes legislation

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Dec 22, 2017

In a rape capital of the world, Sweden, what started out as an uprising by hashtag activists on social media with the popular  #Metoo, has turned into potential legislation designed to protect women from being raped.

Sweden deputy prime minister and outspoken feminist, Isabella Lövin, said the social media #metoo  campaign  “showed that there is a need for the new legislation”.

Seeing a path to promote social justice, the mostly feminist legislature in Sweden has led the charge to pursue consent forms, even though the consent movement has shown no progress toward decreasing rape over the last two years.

Rape statistics show an alarming trend.  #MeToo hashtag activists have been very successful this month in getting their hashtag to influence policy, but there doesn’t seem to be much logic behind doubling down on consent as an antidote to sexual crimes.

According to the AP, “Sweden is moving to change its rape law in a proposal that would require people to get explicit consent before sexual contact.”

So Feminist dominated Sweden plans to stop rape with the same logic that opponents of guns plan to stop crime. Stop the gun crime by legislating background checks, and stop the rape by requiring consent forms.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said his coalition has been preparing this “historic reform” since taking power in 2014.

On Twitter, a popular global social media platform, the #Metoo movement has taken on a sort of drinking game quality.

 

However, there are many global members of the movement who consider this a top concern for global politics.

In collaboration with the United States hashtag activists, the #MeToo movement was named Time Magazine’s person of the year early in December and has been a long time in the making according to this  website.

“The transformational movement founded by Tarana Burke ten years ago receives magazine’s highest honor for encouraging millions to speak out about sexual violence and harassment.”

Not everyone is happy with the progress the movement is making.

Opponents of the Hashtag activists #MeToo campaign in Sweden are feeling pressured.

In this article,”45 percent of Swedish men think that my too-call is wholly or partly exaggerated, according to a survey from Novus”.  Respondents even called it a  witch hunt for men. Even 30% of women did not agree with the #MeToo focus.

The global #MeToo movement, which has set its sights on “radical community” and “disrupting systems”, prides itself on “using the idea of empowerment through empathy”, according to the organizer,  Tarana Burke.

Talking about her future #MeToo community organizing ideas:

“Foundations have to think outside the box and maybe expand past the usual suspects that get all of the funding and start thinking about how to reach into communities and support community healing on a more local level,” Tarana Burke said in an interview with The Chronicle. 

Least anyone thinks that the community organizer and her group is focused only on consent forms in Sweden and forcing apologies from Hollywood directors, look no further than the organizers own Twitter account:

 

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