Letting Survivors Speak
Between 2001 to 2006, Rose McGowan was most notably recognized in the media for her work in the fantasy-comedy television series Charmed. Fast forward to today, and she is being recognized by news outlets, Facebook discussions, and trending tweets for reasons not related to a family of witches. She is being discussed in relation to the ogre that is Harvey Weinstein. Now, don’t let all of this current coverage over the sexual allegations against Weinstein fool you. McGowan has been speaking about his unwelcome behaviour since 1997. Yes, 1997.
“McGowan revealed that she had been raped by Weinstein in 1997” (biography.com) to her management team and to fellow actor Ben Affleck. However, these individuals were not rushing to defend McGowan and provide her with support. Instead, McGowan was offered hush money.
However, McGowan did not let the lack of support when the incident first occurred to stop her from speaking out. In 2015, she began using Twitter as a way to express herself in regards to sexism. By 2017, #RoseArmy began to trend on the site after her speech at the Women’s Convention in Detroit, Michigan. “The speech coincided with the launch of RoseArmy.com, a website that calls on men and women to “shine a light on darkness” and become an “army of truth,” concluding with: Be a thorn. Enlist!” (biography.com). I believe that McGowan’s presence online has been extremely helpful for other survivors and women in general. She has even become an active member of the Me Too movement, voicing her opinions for anyone to access on social media.
Her use of social media is a huge way that McGowan shares her voice, however, it’s not the only way. Her support for Me Too has stemmed into the creation of a documentary called Citizen Rose. “”Do I make you uncomfortable? Good,” she says in voiceover” (cnn.com). By reaching out to other media platforms, McGowan is making sure that her voice and the voices of other women are being heard everywhere. Not just through 140 character tweets.
Due to the inspiration of this cause, many other celebrities began supporting the movement offline as well. For example, French designer Myriam Chalek’s gathering of sexual misconduct survivors at Fashion Week showed men and women alike that abuse will no longer be tolerated.
The same support on and offline has not been given by McGowan to the popular Times Up movement. I believe this may hinder the cause. When I first saw Golden Globes attendees supporting abused survivors by wearing black in addition to the Times Up pins, I thought the notion was awesome. But in the video below (start at the 3:30 mark) McGowan points out the “fakeness” of some celebrities in regards to this movement.
Her comments actually relate to a big question being asked right now: is it possible to separate an artist (who has been accused of abusive behaviour) from the art that they produce? If people decide that they are unable to make this separation, having certain celebrities (such as Justin Timberlake) openly supporting the Time Up movement, will cause a decrease in support of the actual cause.
Stopping the cycle of abuse against women will unfortunately not happen overnight. But, by giving survivors like McGowan a chance to speak, society is making change possible. The pain endured by someone who has been abused should not be added to by those of us who have not gone through similar situations. So, I think it’s time to spread the world online and give non-abusers the chance to show off their artistic abilities, and to become the newest living legends of the art world.
#CHANGE
