Time’s Up: End Sexual Assault

Lady Gaga mumbled two words under her breath before she began to sing her hit song “Joanne” on Jan. 28 at the 2018 Grammys. With a white rose pinned to her chest she said, “Time’s up.”

Multiple artists, including Sam Smith, Miley Cyrus, and Cardi B wore white roses to spread awareness of the Time’s Up campaign – a movement started by a group of actresses, lawyers, and more to eliminate sexual misconduct against women in the workplace according to timesupnow.com.

Time’s Up was established by a group of women who wanted to not only speak out about their own experiences with assault, abuse and harassment, but for other women, too. They created timesupnow.com to give all women a platform to speak out against such misconduct.

The timesupnow.com website states: “To every janitor trapped nightly in a building with a predatory supervisor, every waitress grabbed by a customer and expected to take it with a smile, we stand with you. We support you.”

The East feminist club has been following this movement.

“It is helping our club here at East and is hitting home because we’re building off of that momentum,” senior and Feminist Club co-president Ellie Van Gorden said.

The campaign first entered the public eye on Jan. 7, the night of the 2018 Golden Globe Awards. Actors and actresses who attended the Globes wore black dresses, tuxedos and small black pins that said “Times Up” to support the movement.

Retired director Joel Feigenbaum wrote, directed, and produced movies and TV shows in Hollywood for 28 years. He now does smaller projects in Kansas City, and he has been following the movement as well.

“It gets more attention, than if someone in a profession that some people might say is not as glamorous comes forward, their revelations are equally as important but it might not make headlines,” Feigenbaum said. “There’s always bad actors, and I don’t mean actors in the profession of acting, I mean people that act badly, now they are being called out and paying the consequences. Its long overdue what’s happening.”

After receiving the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey made a speech addressing the movement. Her speech was an introduction to the younger generation of what should be expected in the future and when the future comes it will be because of the men and women that are speaking out now.

“So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon!” Winfrey said in her acceptance speech. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of the magnificent women … and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”

After the Globes, Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Jackman and Claire Foy auctioned off their gowns and tuxedos on eBay with minimum bids starting at $2,500 and going all the way to $10,000. The money made was donated to the Time’s Up GoFundMe.

The GoFundMe is a website being used to raise money for women and men who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse. This site is administered by the National Women’s Law Center.  Anyone can donate any amount of money on the website. Their goal is $20 million, and the site is updated every day.

The funds raised will go directly to those in need and provide money for legal resources to support men and women in court if they do not have the resources for legal assistance. In less than one month, they have raised around $19 million. Actresses including Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston have each donated $500,000  to the GoFundMe.

“No one has more influence over our culture than celebrities and they have finally used their voice for good and they are people that the whole world is watching,” senior and Feminist Club co-president Iman Jaroudi said.

Over three hundred women signed the letter on the Time’s Up website to start talking and breaking the silence. Since then some of the women  have been interviewed about their experiences with harassment and abuse such as Witherspoon and America Ferrera. They have come together to use their high platforms to put an end to the silence and share their stories of harassment.

“Backing this movement in the very public eye, everyone is wearing black and everyone is wearing a white rose,” Van Gorden said. When you have that, there’s no stopping it. It’s done. This isn’t going away.”