Graphic by Han Bui
“I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon!” said Oprah Winfrey, during her rousing acceptance speech at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Jan. 7.
Winfrey was the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement — the first Black woman to get this honor.
In her powerful speech, she also said, “When that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, 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.”
Winfrey and many women wore black to protest sexual harassment and raise awareness for “Time’s Up,” a new initiative fighting sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.
A few celebrities took it a step further by bringing women who are revolutionizing the fight for gender equality outside of Hollywood.
For example, Amy Poehler was accompanied by Saru Jayaraman — a workplace justice advocate for restaurant workers, and Meryl Streep took Ai-jen Poo, director of National Domestic Workers Alliance and advocate for domestic workers’ rights and family care advocacy.
Some male celebrities wore pins that said “Time’s Up” — but they largely failed to address the national and industry-wide reckoning on sexual harassment and assault — in any meaningful way.
Where were the “phenomenal men” that Oprah was referring to?
The almost total absence of men saying anything (during the ceremony) is pretty stark.
Men commit the vast majority of harassment, abuse, and violence. Nothing’s going to change until both individual men’s behavior changes, and institutions that are still largely controlled by men start to be held accountable.
It can’t just be on women to fix these issues. The other half of the population must help — in order to really get all of us to a place where we have true equity.