I understand what you mean about the language, but something like #ListentoHer #LetHerSpeak or other such hashtags aren’t “big” enough. As someone who endured SIX YEARS of bullying and assault at one school after another, where teachers and administrators dismissed my story or blamed me or didn’t believe me (not to mention things that happened in ensuing years), BELIEVE is an important word. BELIEVE is symbolic. BELIEVE is a word that holds space for women and we deserve this space. We deserved it a long, long time ago.

I feel passionately about supporting the symbolic grandiosity of this hashtag and of the movement, itself. Though that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t hold women to the expectation of using it honorably. There will always be some who don’t play fair, but those are the minority and we shouldn’t let people like that damage an important cause.