Outsider on the inside
Rose McGowan got inside Hollywood at the age of 14. She was discovered as an actress, and her career grew rapidly. She got in early and quickly, but she always felt like an outsider. She had her own mind. Something that is not valued much by fellow artists and studios. When speaking at Stanford in Reputation Management class, Rose shared, “You have people who do your makeup and hair and people who dress you. Eventually, I looked in the mirror and couldn’t recognize myself. I looked like a Barbie. When I shaved my head, people asked me, “Did you break up with someone?”. Yes, I answered, I did break up with the world”.
Today, Rose is known not only for her movies and hit TV show “Charmed”, but also for being a writer, activist, and the silence breaker speaking out about sexual assault. She is often seen as a face and leader of #MeToo movement, while she herself says, “I am not #MeToo. My story and my book were narrowed down to the hotel room incident and sexual assault. This is not the only point. It is about the cult of Hollywood and changing the conversation in society”. Despite that, you would still think that the movement would make her feel supported and validated. No. Rose admitted that it didn’t make her feel less alone. “I got little to no support from Hollywood, and I was not surprised by that”, she said. Even at the head of the movement, she remained too strong and different to not be an outsider.
The question I ask myself is what it takes to be an insider in Hollywood and, more importantly, the society as a whole? Can you become one only if you keep your opinion to yourself every time when it is different from others and get away from difficult conversations all together? Rose said half-joking, “The only perfect rape victim is the dead one”. Maybe, the only perfect member of the society is still the silent one? It is sad and troubling that in the country that is claimed to be one of the freest ones in the world there are still so many unspoken rules about what should always remain unspoken itself.
As an ex-journalist from Russia, I know how it feels like when you have something to say and no platform to say it or no one to believe you. Rose mentioned that she did speak up 20 years ago only to find herself being unheard and harassed even more. According to her, #MeToo was a cultural reset button that led to a cultural awakening. Now, when the conversation is finally somewhat open, it still remains to be seen where it takes us and if there is enough place inside for people with different points of view, who traditionally have been left in the silence on the outside.
Ms. McGowan, persecuted by the elite but beloved by the public, now just wants to be known as someone who cares and who changes the conversation in the society. She is a freedom fighter who calls for social intelligence. The latter is about seeing each other as humans first and as representatives of different genders second. It is also about giving ourselves and others allowances for trauma and for dealing with difficult situations in our own ways. There is no timeline on coming out and speaking up. It is about your own level of privacy and about the point when you no longer can or want to keep being silent. Maybe if this is recognized, we can really get inside.
