Dear beloved readers,
I had a lot of ideas to talk about this week. People actually sent me a few suggestions and I promise, I am working on them! For those of you who asked about the tattoo: It’s done and healing and I am very pleased with the result, thank you all for being so sweet. Also, I don’t know if you guys watched the Golden Globes but this is what we are going to talk about today, so take a deep breath, fasten your seatbelts cause we are about to raise the feminist flag.
I wanted to write about the ‘Me Too’ movement for a while now. Every since the movement started to gain the visibility I wanted to say something about it, and before everything I want to say that me too. So, today is not the usual ‘girl on the go fun time’ today we are actually going to try and focus on an important matter and for that to happen I need this to be treated with the respect that it deserves.
Before we start let me explain a little bit about this ‘Me Too’ movement, since I know not everyone is aware of it. So the movement started ten (10!!!!) years ago by the social activist Tarana Burke that basically is a campaign to help women and men to gather the courage and denounce sexual assault and harassment. It is no news that this is an issue that happens every since some moron decided to go on and be like “you know what, men are better than women and we deserve to have some kind of power over them” a billion years ago and that is one of the many factors that helped transform our society in this sexist hole that it is today. And even thought there are men who also suffer from the issue, the numbers don’t compare. You may be wondering though, why it took ten years for this movement to get the visibility it deserves, and I think like every other thing, it takes someone who has some sort of power in society, let’s say, someone famous, to be able to find in them to speak up and then and only then we all can be heard. The #MeToo hashtag became famous in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, who is a film producer, after actresses from Hollywood started to speak up. And every since they started to speak up, actresses and actors, surprisingly or not men are also victims of sexual harassment in our society and in that business – shoutout to Kevin Spacey, we hate you dude –, also started to gather the courage and let those dirty Hollywood secrets come out, which is amazing.
Now, if you were not aware of the #MeToo movement you also have no idea why I mentioned the Golden Globes earlier in this post. So if you like, live under a rock or something, the Golden Globes is an award show for TV and movies and pretty much just like any other Hollywood event, it is glamorous and the perfect opportunity for big gowns and sparkling shoes. This year, because this movement has been making a lot of noise, everyone decided to wear black and they came up with yet another hashtag to speak up about sexual harassment, called #TimesUp, which basically means that celebrities, both male and female, decided to wear all black – much to Anna Wintour misery, since we all know the Queen of Vogue once said that we shall never wear head to toe black, but I think she would allow an exception – in awareness of those disgusting things happening not only in their business but all over the world and in solidarity to the #TimesUp movement so basically let everyone know that now that we are talking about it we are not going to stop talking about it. Tell everyone that time is up with this bullshit, and I say bullshit for a lack of better term, and that we are not going to be quiet. We are not going to stop standing up with our truth, and we are not going to shut up. Which is amazing, this movements, like other feminist movements such as #HeForShe, they all make me so happy because they all involve those people who are recognized in the media and crap, how many teenagers became aware of the situation because I don’t know, Hermione Granger or Oprah decided to open up about that. It is not an easy topic and even harder to talk about when we live in a world that even when you do gather the courage to speak about it, you still get crap because “who knows if she is saying the truth?” because let me tell you, when Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual abusing another male actor, he lost his job before you could even say Quidditch, meanwhile actors like James Franco? Yeah he won a Golden Globe just last Sunday, did a speech in front of thousands of people wearing black and you know what happened about this? Nothing.
We finally got to where I wanted to get. So, like me you are thinking “Wait if the Golden Globes gave an award to a sexual abuser, why the hell they decided to support the #TimesUp movement?” believe me or not but it gets worse. They did a little tribute thing to no one other than Kirk Douglas, who, rumors has it, raped deceased actor Natalie Wood in a hotel room when she was 16 years old which again makes us all wonder why the fuck the Golden Globes even allowed such thing with the #TimesUp movement going on in that same room. To me the whole thing starts wrong with the choice of the color black, because honestly a lot of celebrities, specially men, usually wear black in those events, so as I see, if they picked a bright, different color, that would actually looks as if people are doing something different and act as if they are at least trying to do something for real, that would’ve been way more useful than a bunch of men wearing regular tuxedos. The other thing is, this ambiguous narrative in which ‘yes we are talking about sexual harassment but yes we are taking sexual abusers to the stage’ that the Golden Globes did and only proved to me how much we need way more than a shit ton of celebrities wearing black, when some of them didn’t even wear head to toe black or black at all, and not to mention how it just seemed like a few of them wore it to you know blend in.
One good thing that night brought was, sorry to say this but the most amazing woman on planet Earth, Oprah and her amazing speech about what the fuck is up. It was a beautiful inspiring thing that I hope I get to show to my daughter someday, and that I hope when I do, – and I full on quote Oprah right now – we will be living in a world where no one has to say “me too” ever again. This fight goes beyond equal rights, this is about we living in a world in which women don’t feel comfortable walking by themselves whenever they see a group of men ahead of them, and we choose to cross the street because we never know when we are in danger or not. This is about all the celebrities and regular people who spoke up about being abused and absolutely nothing happened because when a woman does so, she probably wants to win something with this, like attention or fame, and it never crosses the media’s mind that it takes a lot of guts to stand up and say “me too”. This is about every person who ever had to go through the humiliation of feeling with zero power or control over their own bodies and minds because someone else thought they had the right to simply do whatever the fuck they want with it. This is about every woman who was ever catcalled on the street and when complained about they heard ‘oh you can’t take a compliment’ ‘chill out!’. This is about something much bigger than us and something that makes us who truly speak up feel almost too small to do so when we find out how long this has been going on and how many victims we lost because of this issue, we are trying to do something that is so much bigger than all of us and it feels almost stupid to try and use our words to change the world but let me tell you something: Even if I said what I said about the color choice and that the whole Golden Globe bullshit, there was truly something powerful in all those people that many of us call idols or people that just inspire us or even style icons that we love seeing on our TV or magazines, there was something about having people, the ones who actually do something about it, doing something about it that was beyond my mind. I am talking about the one whom genuinely wore black because of what it meant and spoke up and brought this movement with them with the only purpose of letting everyone know that time is up for good.
As woman, who is not even close to shutting up, I came here today to tell you guys that me too. And I say this, with tearful eyes and my heart so tight in my chest because this is kind of abuse that makes me in complete disbelief that this is the world we live in today. But also, I came here today with my heart full because this is the time to do something about it, this is the time to step on the breaks and change this bullshit and to just end with this nonsense. It’s time to speak up and to be brave about it and to be strong about this and above everything, to be heard. So please, if you are facing any sort of sexual harassment or if you were sexually abused, don’t be afraid to speak up because this is what will make you break free and feel like you are living your truth and you are not scared to put an end to this. And even if takes a while, I hope you find the courage in yourself to see that this is not okay, that this is not your fault, and above everything, that this does not define you. The problem is never the victim, and I hope you know that.
Please, try and take everything you can from this and remember that, as Oprah so amazingly said, there is a day on the horizon and even if I can’t speak for everyone, I know many people like me will do everything in their power, even if their only sort of power is through a blog with a dozen beloved readers, to end this so we can break free together. Until next time, don’t forget to fight for your truth and please, stay out of trouble, and if you don’t – oh my god, tell me all about it.
– Your Girl on the Go