How U.S. and French media frame #MeToo and #BalanceTonPorc from
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A research project by Kira Erickson
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Spring 2019
As we are rapidly nearing the two-year mark of the origin of “Me Too,” it is time to evaluate how the movement has evolved. Movements are seldom static, usually shifting and changing with the current times. In this section, I am exploring the present-day forms of #MeToo and #BalanceTonPorc, as they are in the spring of 2019.
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Le Monde has published only seven articles containing #BalanceTonPorc in 2019. The most recent, published May 30, details the hearing of Sandra Muller and the man she accused of sexual harassment, the French TV executive Eric Brion.
Another article expresses the importance of trans visibility, pointing out the success of #MeToo, #BalanceTonPorc and other spin-off movements which have created a platform for women to unite against their perpetrators, oppose the patriarchal society and gain agency.
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In a third, Catherine Deneuve defends her stance on both movements, simultaneously acknowledging the hostile reactions she received because of it.
While these sparse articles may not seem to indicate growth in #BalanceTonPorc, it is important to note that #BalanceTonPorc was tweeted nearly one million times during the year following Sandra Muller’s initial tweet on October 13, 2017 (Oppenheim, 2019). And in 2018, harsher laws were enacted against cat-calling and street harassment (Oppenheim, 2019).
The New York Times has taken a different approach in its recent coverage of “Me Too.” In fact, there are 862 results which appeared in Nexis Uni for #MeToo in 2019, as of June 12, 2019. The sheer vastness of the publication’s reporting indicates “Me Too” is still just as prevalent now as it was in the fall of 2017.
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Just during this past month of May alone, there are stories of campaigns within the McDonald’s Corporation against workplace harassment and Netflix series and films which grapple with the reality of the #MeToo Movement. There are even stories within the realm of academia, detailing the struggle for survivors to remain anonymous in recent sexual assault lawsuits happening in university settings.
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It is possible The New York Times has much more resources than Le Monde to perform this extensive coverage, which could help explain the gap in coverage. However, both publications clearly haven’t lost sight of #MeToo or #BalanceTonPorc, as more stories continue to be published.
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