I hear “your truth” as “your secret” or “your hidden piece of the puzzle.” That is, women who have been harassed and assaulted have been lately revealing the truth that was secret for a long time.
It was always true that there were some, many, men who acted badly, but for a long time that had been covered up. Now the truth begins to emerge.
Well the crux is what will be done with the “truth.” If women stand up for themselves going forward all this will have been a success. But enough with the old stories. Just begin. Men got the message. Hopefully women got it too. So yeah for Hollywood…let’s see what the industry does with the new power balance.
That is why the Time’s Up founders brought female activists from other areas of employment:
Marai Larasai, from an organization to end violence against minority women; Tarana Burke, founder of Girls for Gender Equity and initiator of the #MeToo hashtag; Saru Jayaraman, a workplace-justice advocate for restaurant workers; Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Mónica Ramírez, who fights for justice for female farmworkers; and a couple of others.
The Times Up founders get a microphone. They handed it to the activists.
I like the way Oprah’s speechwriter used “truth.”
First she defines “your truth.” It’s your personal story.
Then later, look how she alludes to the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
The truth goes marching on. Tell your truth. Reveal the hidden secrets of men in power abusing women. Damn, that was a good speech.
“let’s see what the industry does with the new power balance.” WHAT new power balance?
@TatinG I think “their truth” is their interpretation. How they perceived actions.
In the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, as a fictional example, we saw and heard Hannah Baker tell through cassette tapes about the experiences that led to her taking her own life. These were what she saw from her perspective only. One seemingly minor incident happened where she had left a note for a boy who had been harassing her, basically putting her heart on the line and pleading with him to stop. She says she saw him throw the note away like it was garbage and meaningless. Later, after her death we see the boy pull the note out of his pocket. He had been carrying it around for weeks or months. He never threw it away. It obviously did mean something to him. Likely she saw him throw something else, or saw someone nearby drop something, etc. Another character makes the point that these tapes were Hannah’s truth. She wasn’t purposefully lying about what she saw and heard.
The truth can be a funny thing and sometimes our eyes and ears can be fooled and sometimes we read intentions in actions that another person didn’t intend. So maybe when they are saying women can tell their truths (and understand I can’t speak for them, this is my own interpretation) perhaps they mean they are saying what they saw, heard and felt from their own perspective. They are acknowledging that maybe another truth from another perspective might be that some people would view the same experiences as funny, harmless, insignificant. But for many of these women, their truth is these experiences caused them harm in some way.
Isn’t that what this is all about? Shifting the power balance from men and dispersing it in a more egalitarian and meritorious manner between the sexes. Teaching women to stand up and say no to power plays or sexual pressures in exchange for work and prospects of a better working life. Telling men that they cannot use sex as a bargaining tool. If not, then Hollywood lost me in whatever they are thinking.
Sexual harassment laws came out 20+ years ago. It seems most corporate entities got on top if it. We have seen an avalanche of issues from media, entertainment, and government. Haven’t seen much from general industry. None of the big corps – apple, google, GM, GE, etc. – have been dragged into it. If it was pervasive in industry, I would think you’d see a lot of action there. Just an observation.
So what do we do when Hollywood puts out the next movie objectifying women? Or 50 shades of grey or something like that?
Ahem.
Google AI researcher Steven Scott accused of harassment, suspended:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-16/google-researcher-accused-of-sexual-harassment-roiling-ai-field
Google’s Kelly Ellis writes about pervasive sexual harassment at Google:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/salvadorhernandez/google-kelly-ellis?utm_term=.tdKv0bvpo#.scmKjlK89
Google former Senior Vice President Amit Singhal allegedly let go for sexual harassment, then fired from Uber too:
https://gizmodo.com/former-google-engineer-blasts-companys-hr-after-sexual-1792802747
And the famous Google memo:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/business/google-women-engineer-fired-memo.html
And that’s just for Google.
Time’s Up!
I fully enjoyed the night. From start to finish. Some highlights for me:
I loved the whole opening, including the Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey jokes.
Thumbs way up for Natalie Portman throwing her dig at the all male nominated category Best Director for a Motion Picture.
Aziz Ansari! YES! Best Actor in a Comedy for Master of None. More barriers broken!
All black, all the time. YES! We are one. We are united. We hear you. We see you. Bravo to the men who got on board too.
Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s announcement of two $1 million grants to two VERY important press groups, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Boy if THAT didn’t send a message!
Oprah’s Cecil B. DeMille Award speech. This woman is one of the finest public speakers of my time. I think what I especially love about her is that when she speaks, she exudes the message. I stood up and applauded when she was done.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt as passionate after an awards show.
Promo for the show on NBC Site- Host Seth Meyers brings the fun as film and television stars are honored at Hollywood’s Party of the year. The host of NBC’s critically acclaimed “Late night with Seth Meyers” will take Center Stage at the Beverly Hilton when he hosts this year live, star studded awards show celebrating the very best in TV and film.
I guess I miss the point of an awards show. Apparently NBC did too.
Side question- Has anything of these journalists ever made up a story? Or does it depend on what you want to hear?
But as someone pointed out earlier when the next "50 Shades of Grey’ comes out as long as it makes a buck will last night be forgotten?
No. This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
“Promo for the show on NBC Site- Host Seth Meyers brings the fun as film and television stars are honored at Hollywood’s Party of the year. The host of NBC’s critically acclaimed “Late night with Seth Meyers” will take Center Stage at the Beverly Hilton when he hosts this year live, star studded awards show celebrating the very best in TV and film.”
Yep, they did that. Plus more.
What are you even talking about? Which journalists?
Hollywood awards shows have always had a political element, especially the Golden Globes. No one forces anyone to watch an awards show, and no adult who has ever watched even one of them should be in the least bit surprised when politics or other social issues get brought into it.
I’m sensing snowflakes in the air.
Kind of funny though seeing Meryl Streep giving standing ovations to Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polanski. Who’s side is she on in regards to sexual harassment?
Yeah… it is terrible to be reminded that women have been shut out of roles in Hollywood and in many other industries if they don’t put out for the guys in charge. As a woman who has been harassed, I’d say it was a lot of fun. Men have had their turn with this game for most of recorded history. Time’s up. It is going to be uncomfortable for anyone who thinks the status quo was okay in this area. Too bad. It will stop when women can be truly comfortable that they are judged on their merit, paid equally for their work, and don’t have to put up with harassment.
Oh, and I’m guessing there is stuff going on in corporate America right now that isn’t making the news. Not every removal or disciplinary action of a harasser makes it into the news (corporations strongly prefer that it doesn’t).
I think it’s funny that so many people who have never hosted, presented or produced an awards show and thus know nothing about it are publicly decrying how an awards show has been hosted, presented and produced.
Stone, meet glass house.