Sexual assault is the Jack-in-the-Box of the world. It happens, then goes away only to be repeated on another day, another street, and by another person. It gets swept under the rug, again and again and again.

Much common ground has been reached as of late surrounding the Harvey Weinstein controversy; the fact that it was brought to light, and then illuminated by people with a voice in society. But unfortunately, this isn’t the end of the ordeal.

To quote Andy Richter on Twitter, “Now that they’ve kicked Harvey Weinstein out, it’s great to know that the Motion Picture Academy is 100% (percent) sex predator-free”.

The joke is that even though we’ve pinned down one person, we still have a long way to go in terms of eradicating or even slowing-down things like this. Yes, it’s great that this has happened, but just because we caught one bad guy doesn’t mean that the city’s safe.

All eyes are turned to Hollywood now. Everyone and their mother during the past week has spoken up about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault behind the clapperboards and the cameras. Your beloved actors and favorite singers are speaking out, and it’s been shocking to say the least; but not in the way that one would think.

We know that sexual harassment and assault exists, somewhere out there in the world, but what’s most shocking is the multitude of people, citizens like us, that have come out and self-identified with #MeToo.

What’s being revealed is not pretty. The amount of people that say that they have either been sexually harassed in the past or are currently being sexually harassed in their day-to-day lives, on the way to school, or work, or even worse, at their occupation, etc. is shocking.

In fact, it’s illuminated issues that society doesn’t often acknowledge, such as sexual assault among men. This wake-up call caused some to reevaluate their interactions and think, “Have I done this before, even unintentionally?”

The moral of this story is this: we can all stand to be a little less altruistic. Try to treat others like human beings with respect. On the most base level, if you generally make unwanted objectifying statements to people, try not to do that. A person is the sum of their actions, and the only way that we’re going to stop sexual objectification, harassment and assault from happening is be conscious of our own actions. The only way to break a pattern is to break the wheel. So stop it in its tracks.

Our best defense is speaking out and banding together. Of course, these things will still happen but we can retaliate by working together to bring justice for the whole of society.

This was the catalyst the world needed and the start of a movement that isn’t only about feminism, but also social change.

Most of all, the use of #MeToo showed us this: We’re definitely more than capable of making the whole world listen than we think we are.