Abstract
Women’s speech, especially women’s speech about men’s abuses, has been feared and suppressed for centuries. From the scold’s bridle to witch hunts, history is replete with attempts to keep women quiet and in their place. Men’s silencing of women is also a prominent theme in the mythology and folk tales of multiple cultures. As myths represent some of our deepest and oldest fears and desires, these stories serve as rich sources of illustration and illumination in understanding the relationship between men’s sexual rage and the suppression of women’s speech. The stories of three mythical women—Cassandra, Philomela, and Scheherazade—offer insights into the interaction of male sexual rage and women’s speech that shed light on the #MeToo movement and the backlash it has inspired.
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Notes
- 1.
Of course, #MeToo is not solely about women’s voices and not solely about male abuses. But the movement began with women speaking up about rape and sexual harassment at the hands of men, and this theme has continued to be predominant.
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Franks, M.A. (2019). A Thousand and One Stories: Myth and the #MeToo Movement. In: Fileborn, B., Loney-Howes, R. (eds) #MeToo and the Politics of Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15213-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15213-0_6
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