Winfrey, who is the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement, used this platform to highlight important issues related to both the #MeToo movement and her own experiences as a black woman.

Just as my initial coping mechanism post-assault was to demonize my perpetrator and eschew nuance in the name of healing, I worry that perhaps that has been our wider cultural approach.

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Roe v. Wade case. That decision, made 45 years ago, gave women the legal right to have an abortion.

MC Soffia started to rap when she was only six years old. By 11, her name was well known in her native Brazil, and by 13, the artist was listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women of 2017.

Men have only been surprised by #MeToo because they haven't been forced to confront the ways in which women’s lives are so frequently tinged with the feeling that they must defend themselves against men’s tendencies to sexualize them.

Winfrey recently made headlines for her incredible acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. In fact, many seemed to think the speech set the stage for the media mogul’s future presidential run.

On December 12, Merriam-Webster declared that the word of 2017 was “feminism.” Their choice highlights not only our culture’s struggle to define the word “feminism” itself, but the way in which the movement the word represents played out in the spheres of politics and entertainment last year.

Those accused of misconduct, assault, and harassment have ranged from small actors to big-shot producers, but almost all were male. Almost, but not all: female singer Timothy Heller recently accused alternative pop singer Melanie Martinez of assaulting her.

The one thing that characterized my childhood in the Bronx has been fire. Growing up there, it was clear that the borough hadn’t been, wasn’t, and perhaps never will be a priority for New York City officials.

Since her release earlier this year, Manning has been speaking about issues like gender identity and surveillance in the press and at colleges and universities. On November 15, I had the chance to see her speak at Wesleyan University.

Despite the way they treated me, none of the individuals I served could take away the power I still had — power I earned — at work.