Time’s Up: Hollywood Sex Abuse
March 31, 2019
The biggest news in Hollywood is no longer the upcoming highly anticipated films or the starring actors and actresses, but of the sexual harassment allegations that have turned the whole industry upside down. Dozens of women have stepped out against powerful and well-known men in the cinematic industry, such as Kevin Spacey, Ben Affleck, and many more, and every week there is another allegation, landing yet another famous man in hot water. In the first two weeks of January, James Franco and Aziz Ansari have both been accused of sexual abuse.
The sexual allegations have continued from late October into the new year. Finally, people are beginning to address sexual assault and rape, and fight against it. The #MeToo movement, a movement encouraging women to tell their stories about sexual harassment in response to the drastic amount of allegations against ex-producer Harvey Weinstein, has now transformed into a new campaign, called Time’s Up.
Time’s Up is a movement that works to abolish sexual harassment in our society for good. Created on the first of this year, Time’s Up had its influence on January 7, 2018 at the 75th Golden Globe Awards, the annual ceremony that awarded the best of films and American television of 2017.
During their speeches, many of the women who received awards used their time in the spotlight to address the injustice in society that has been ignored for far too long. Actress Laura Dern, who won a golden globe for best supporting actress in the TV series “Big Little Lies” said in her acceptance speech, “Many of us were taught not to tattle. It was a culture of silencing, and it was normalized. I urge all of us to not only support survivors and bystanders who are brave enough to tell their truth, but to promote restorative justice.” Many more actresses like Elisabeth Moss, Frances McDormand, and Nicole Kidman thanked those that had supported them, while also addressing all of the other women in the room, reaching out to their peers with love.
Oprah Winfrey made history at the Golden Globes for not only being the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. Demille Award, but with her influential speech as well. Winfrey said, “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up.”
The importance of Time’s Up is not just about bringing hope to other women celebrities. Famous and powerful women coming out and expressing what has happened to them has created a revolution in not only Hollywood, but everywhere else as well, and that is why the Time’s Up movement is so important. Sexual assault can happen anywhere, all the time, and to anyone. Whether they are well-known or not, women are able to show each other that they no longer have to hide what has happened to them, and this has strengthened and united women as a whole.