While the highly publicized allegations have been centered on the entertainment industry, sexual assault and harassment are highly pervasive in our entire society.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be, like, endemic to the culture of Hollywood, and in some ways it is, except that it\u2019s endemic to all cultures,\u201d Jennifer Sacco, the director of Quinnipiac\u2019s Women\u2019s and Gender Studies program, said.<\/p>\n
Victims of sexual harassment are not limited to actresses. According to a survey from 2015<\/a>, 1 in 3 women has been sexually harassed at work.<\/p>\n \u201cVirtually, every adult woman I know has been sexually harassed at work,\u201d Sacco said.<\/p>\n That includes Sacco. She said she was sexually harassed while working at a department store when she was in her 20s.<\/p>\n These actions and comments can have many negative effects on the victims.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can cause serious anxiety which prevents us from doing our jobs, from feeling safe, from doing what we need to or want to, and generally from flourishing. And they are normalized,\u201d Melissa Kaplan, a Quinnipiac professor who teaches English and women\u2019s and gender studies, said. \u201cA cat-caller is only scary at all because we don\u2019t know when one might follow us home. And a guy who aggressively pushes for sex wouldn\u2019t make us so queasy if we felt 100 percent sure he\u2019d listen if we said no.\u201d<\/p>\n To raise awareness about these issues, an online movement was started where thousands of women have used \u201c#MeToo\u201d to share their own stories about sexual assault and harassment. On Sunday, Nov. 12, the movement took to the streets of Hollywood for the #MeToo Survivors March<\/a>. Hundreds of people joined in to show their support. <\/p>\n
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