Tbh Medusa is a *fantastic* figure to push the movement. She was raped by Poseidon in a temple of Athena, and Athena turned her into a monster because of it.

On one hand you have the view that, holy shit Athena are you really victim blaming a mortal woman for not being chaste in your temple when she was raped by the God of the friggin Oceans? It shows how often victims, particularly women victims of powerful men, are silenced and treated like crap by even other women

A deeper interpretation of that story that I prefer though is that Athena turning her into a Gorgon was actually a blessing for Medusa – no man could ever touch her again. Athena couldn’t really act against Poseidon himself, as he was 1) her uncle 2) more powerful than her and 3) a male god who raped a human, big whoop (in that world view).

Combining those interpretations gives a wonderful parallel to the Me Too movement. Athena probably did it partly out of spite, she was a Greek god and all that was their MO. So there’s another woman not having Medusa’s back and victim blaming. But despite Athena’s flawed rationale and the power imbalance she gave Medusa a way to make sure that would never happen again. The forced isolation after becoming a monster would suck but wouldn’t be worse than what Medusa would face from being a maiden who supposedly desecrated a temple. And then, despite *all that,* men who didn’t know the whole story sought to bring down this evil killer monster to further their own fame. She couldn’t even suffer in peace, and one day Perseus, the son of the most powerful god there was, aided by other gods *including fucking Athena herself,* killed Medusa

There are so many layers to the story that reflect strongly thousands of years later for victims, the resentment and at best mixed support they get, and ulterior motives of the people around them

Thinking that statue isn’t a good representation of a complex issue like the one Me Too at least originally started to combat is missing the mark.