#MeToo is the gift that keeps on giving

‘What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open,’ wrote the American poet and activist Muriel Rukeyser in 1968. It took just short of half a century, but 2017 was the year in which #MeToo made this prophecy a reality. The phrase was coined in 2006 by the black American activist Tarana Burke, who was inspired to use it after finding herself without words when a 13-year-old girl confided in her that she had been sexually assaulted, later wishing she had just said ‘Me too’. But it spread virally – like some mass cyberspace inoculation against isolation – just a few weeks ago, when the actress Alyssa Milano encouraged women who had suffered sexual abuse to tweet it in the wake of the first Harvey Weinstein revelations. Since then millions have done so.

How did we get to this place of horror, but also of hope? It’s not unfair to say that while the majority of heterosexual men find most women somewhat attractive, the majority of heterosexual women find most men somewhat unattractive.