HimToo

HimToo enters the account

as Rachel Crooks’s description of her local environment: a rural, conservative community she saw as more aligned with #HimToo than with the prevailing #MeToo response. The phrase locates the risks of speaking out in a particular place and political climate rather than treating public reaction as uniform.

Crooks’s Local Context

After coming forward about Donald Trump in 2016, Crooks experienced crippling anxiety and self-consciousness. At the gathering of women who had spoken publicly about harassment or assault, she was the only participant living in a rural, conservative area. Her use of #HimToo distinguished that setting from the more supportive atmosphere implied by the gathering, without suggesting that all its residents shared one view.

From Accusation to Political Life

After television appearances and a press conference about her accusation, local Democrats invited Crooks to run for a state legislative seat. She initially thought the idea was terrible: critics had already suggested that she had told her story for political purposes, and a campaign could seem to confirm that suspicion. The phrase therefore sits beside a practical dilemma: visibility could expose her to more skepticism even as it gave her a platform.

A Voice Put to Use

Crooks cared about education and health care, and described the incumbent as “a rubber stamp for the Republican party.” She concluded that her national profile could give her fundraising potential and ran for office, learning to lead rallies and deliver speeches. Her trajectory places #HimToo alongside, rather than in place of, the broader political consequences of speaking out: a local climate she regarded as resistant, and a public voice she nevertheless chose to use.