How is Taiwan’s #MeToo changing attitudes on sexual harassment?
On Tuesday, July 4 at 19:30 GMT:
Sparked by a Netflix drama about a sexual harassment scandal, Taiwan’s ongoing wave of #MeToo accusations has forced society to confront issues of sexism and how it treats abuse victims who make their cases public.
Since May, high-ranking politicians, academic figures, actors and celebrities have been entangled in #MeToo scandals, with some of the accused attempting to reclaim the narrative from alleged victims.
Some harassment victims have said they were inspired to speak out after watching the Taiwanese Netflix drama “Wave Makers”, which deals with a sexual harassment scandal among political campaign workers in a fictionalised version of the country’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen said her administration will take action to combat sexual harassment. “Our society as a whole must educate ourselves again,” wrote Tsai in a June 6 Facebook post. “The people who have been sexually harassed are victims, not troublemakers. These are people we want to protect, not treat with prejudice.”
This month a special session of the Legislative Yuan will debate proposed amendments to Taiwan’s laws regarding sexual harassment prevention and gender equality.
Although Taiwan is known as one of Asia’s most progressive societies, its #MeToo movement has shown how patriarchal attitudes and a culture of silence regarding harassment can persist in workplaces and institutions. Activists say more needs to be done to address gender biases that can deter sexual harassment victims from speaking out.
In this episode of The Stream, we’ll discuss the impact the #MeToo movement is having in Taiwan.
On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:
Brian Hioe, @brianhioe
Editor, New Bloom Magazine
Jennifer Lu, @OutrightIntl
Asia director, Outright International
Darice Chang, @darice_dandan
Ambassador, Women’s March Taiwan