Golden Globes was glittering virtue-signalling event
In the first major event since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke and the women of the #MeToo movement were named Person of The Year by Time Magazine, the Golden Globes served to undermine women's right watershed moment.
In a previous 2015 post, I bleated on about how celebrities should be fighting the feminism fight, as they're paid better than most of us and have a bigger, louder and influential platform. Thanks to some brave women, who blew the open secret of Weinstein's predatory behaviour, women everywhere now have a voice.
No longer are our complaints greeted with "she was asking for it because she was shit-faced/flirting/showing some ankle". What it highlighted is that women are only asking for it when they are literally asking for it and/or agree to give it when asked for it.
Our complaints of men abusing their position of power to abuse women and some of the line crossing are being taken seriously and the shame that once silenced women has been lifted.
Sure, there are grey areas. There always will be when it comes to human interaction and emotion. Nothing is binary. One person's banter is another person's attack on their sensibilities. One person's flirting is another person's friendly. However, there's no grey area around touching an intimate part of someone's body without their permission or relentlessly pursuing someone who has spurned past advances.
And no, Giles Coren, this doesn't mean that men can't accidentally put a xx at the end of their emails or be put off cracking onto someone for fear they'll be vilified. Lord knows the dating game is difficult enough as it is without adding HR and litigation to it.
It was great when the movement evolved, so not to lose momentum, into #TimesUp. And in the year The Handmaid's Tale was a massive success, it was an X-chromosome battle-cry telling the world enough is enough on sexual discrimination, harassment and assault. Thumbs up, Hollywood. Nearly all the women wore black in solidarity for the movement. Double thumbs up, Hollywood. Spending the whole evening virtue signaling in a room full of sex offenders and enablers is nothing short of hypocritical.
James Franco's highly publicised misdemeanor with a 17-year-old fan on Instagram wasn't just "poor judgment". And if you're a reader of Blind Items, his name is never far away from sexual harassment/assault allegations. I know any dog on the internet can write stuff about a celebrity and there are fans that are proper cray-cray, but in my experience, whatever salacious gossip is reported tends to end up being true (exhibit A, Harvey Weinstein, who was exposed by Lainey Gossip years ago as someone who habitually sleeps with his leading ladies).
Instead of being called out by the vociferous ladies in black, he was invited for free food and booze, fondle Saoirse Ronan's side-boob and walked away with a very prestigious accolade to help boost his career. Kevin Spacey did this to guys and he was air-brushed out of nominated film All The Money In The World.
Oprah was awarded a lifetime achievement for being one of the most powerful women in entertainment for the last 20 years, she got cheers for chanting "Their time is up". Thanks, Oprah, but you've been Weinstein's bum-chum for years, why didn't you call time on his disgraceful behaviour then, saving dozen's of women the agony of being abused by a giant, rotten uncooked haggis.
I realise no one else should take responsibility for another person's crimes, but I called out three different male friends when I saw them taking advantage of intoxicated and/or attractive girls. One, I even publicly shamed on social media and told his then-girlfriend what he was doing.
As Munroe Bergdorf said about racism, seeing it and staying silent makes you complicit. Oprah wasn't an aspiring young actress, she regularly topped the Forbes power list and has a net worth of $2.8 billion (2017) and she made a career empowering women. Weinstein had no leverage over her, yet she failed to be a silence breaker. So her words are empty and hypocritical... And I've not mentioned that she was going to come out in defense of Weinstein when the story broke and offered to interview him... And that one of Weinstein's accusers claims she was duped by Oprah into performing sexual acts, allegedly.
Then there was Natalie Portman's "sassy" swipe at the all-male nominees for best director. It's reported that her husband is a serial cheater and this Kelis-esque man-hating venom could barely be disguised behind her quip. I get that Hollywood is white privilege, all minorities are sidelined; blacks, Asians, LGBT, women and people with disabilities, that's no reason to undermine the genius of Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, Christopher Nolan's epic, Dunkirk, the seamlessness of Spacey's replacement by Ridley Scott in All The Money In The World, stalwart Steven Spielberg for The Post and the third Brit on the list, award winning writer/director, Martin McDonagh, for independent, violence against women movie, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
That's a pretty tough and impressive list. If any of these were snubbed in favour of Patty Jenkins, who directed low-brow, moneyspinner Wonder Woman, it would tarnish the integrity of film awards. Women don't want to be included just because they're women, we want to be included because we're good.
I was with these ladies, standing shoulder to shoulder with them until they started the Salem Warlock Trials in order to gain publicity. This isn't the villagers sharpening their pitchforks, it's about changing culture and addressing male toxicity, not alienating men - who, let's face it, need to be on-board with this in order to drive any sort of change.
In a previous 2015 post, I bleated on about how celebrities should be fighting the feminism fight, as they're paid better than most of us and have a bigger, louder and influential platform. Thanks to some brave women, who blew the open secret of Weinstein's predatory behaviour, women everywhere now have a voice.
No longer are our complaints greeted with "she was asking for it because she was shit-faced/flirting/showing some ankle". What it highlighted is that women are only asking for it when they are literally asking for it and/or agree to give it when asked for it.
Our complaints of men abusing their position of power to abuse women and some of the line crossing are being taken seriously and the shame that once silenced women has been lifted.
Sure, there are grey areas. There always will be when it comes to human interaction and emotion. Nothing is binary. One person's banter is another person's attack on their sensibilities. One person's flirting is another person's friendly. However, there's no grey area around touching an intimate part of someone's body without their permission or relentlessly pursuing someone who has spurned past advances.
And no, Giles Coren, this doesn't mean that men can't accidentally put a xx at the end of their emails or be put off cracking onto someone for fear they'll be vilified. Lord knows the dating game is difficult enough as it is without adding HR and litigation to it.
It was great when the movement evolved, so not to lose momentum, into #TimesUp. And in the year The Handmaid's Tale was a massive success, it was an X-chromosome battle-cry telling the world enough is enough on sexual discrimination, harassment and assault. Thumbs up, Hollywood. Nearly all the women wore black in solidarity for the movement. Double thumbs up, Hollywood. Spending the whole evening virtue signaling in a room full of sex offenders and enablers is nothing short of hypocritical.
James Franco's highly publicised misdemeanor with a 17-year-old fan on Instagram wasn't just "poor judgment". And if you're a reader of Blind Items, his name is never far away from sexual harassment/assault allegations. I know any dog on the internet can write stuff about a celebrity and there are fans that are proper cray-cray, but in my experience, whatever salacious gossip is reported tends to end up being true (exhibit A, Harvey Weinstein, who was exposed by Lainey Gossip years ago as someone who habitually sleeps with his leading ladies).
Instead of being called out by the vociferous ladies in black, he was invited for free food and booze, fondle Saoirse Ronan's side-boob and walked away with a very prestigious accolade to help boost his career. Kevin Spacey did this to guys and he was air-brushed out of nominated film All The Money In The World.
Oprah was awarded a lifetime achievement for being one of the most powerful women in entertainment for the last 20 years, she got cheers for chanting "Their time is up". Thanks, Oprah, but you've been Weinstein's bum-chum for years, why didn't you call time on his disgraceful behaviour then, saving dozen's of women the agony of being abused by a giant, rotten uncooked haggis.
I realise no one else should take responsibility for another person's crimes, but I called out three different male friends when I saw them taking advantage of intoxicated and/or attractive girls. One, I even publicly shamed on social media and told his then-girlfriend what he was doing.
As Munroe Bergdorf said about racism, seeing it and staying silent makes you complicit. Oprah wasn't an aspiring young actress, she regularly topped the Forbes power list and has a net worth of $2.8 billion (2017) and she made a career empowering women. Weinstein had no leverage over her, yet she failed to be a silence breaker. So her words are empty and hypocritical... And I've not mentioned that she was going to come out in defense of Weinstein when the story broke and offered to interview him... And that one of Weinstein's accusers claims she was duped by Oprah into performing sexual acts, allegedly.
Then there was Natalie Portman's "sassy" swipe at the all-male nominees for best director. It's reported that her husband is a serial cheater and this Kelis-esque man-hating venom could barely be disguised behind her quip. I get that Hollywood is white privilege, all minorities are sidelined; blacks, Asians, LGBT, women and people with disabilities, that's no reason to undermine the genius of Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, Christopher Nolan's epic, Dunkirk, the seamlessness of Spacey's replacement by Ridley Scott in All The Money In The World, stalwart Steven Spielberg for The Post and the third Brit on the list, award winning writer/director, Martin McDonagh, for independent, violence against women movie, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
That's a pretty tough and impressive list. If any of these were snubbed in favour of Patty Jenkins, who directed low-brow, moneyspinner Wonder Woman, it would tarnish the integrity of film awards. Women don't want to be included just because they're women, we want to be included because we're good.
I was with these ladies, standing shoulder to shoulder with them until they started the Salem Warlock Trials in order to gain publicity. This isn't the villagers sharpening their pitchforks, it's about changing culture and addressing male toxicity, not alienating men - who, let's face it, need to be on-board with this in order to drive any sort of change.
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