Tarana Burke: 'Me Too Is Not A Women's Movement'

Me Too creator Tarana Burke wants the current movement to be more inclusive to people of all genders. 

“Me Too is not a women’s movement,” Burke said during the Time 100 Summit in New York City on Tuesday. “Yes, it was women that came forward and talked about it. Yes, it was about women in Hollywood initially coming forward. But men’s first role in this movement is as survivors.”

Burke, who created the movement over a decade ago , also explained that Me Too can only be successful if we as a culture examine everyone’s learned behavior and that includes the men we see as “good guys” not just people like Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly .

“People are OK when you’re talking about the big, scary bad guy. Let’s talk about Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly and Les Moonves, all of these big boogeymen if you will,” Burke said.

“But when we start talking about behavior and we start talking about like ‘Hey you make me uncomfortable, good guy,’” she continued. “The ‘good guy’ who’s an ally for women, who looks out for everybody, who’s a stand-up person, but who may behave in a way that is too permissive.”

In reality, Burke said, “we have to examine all of our behavior,” later adding, “and it’s gonna be uncomfortable.”