Black, the colour of the night, the colour of mourning, and, often, the colour of protest, became the colour of “awakening” at the Golden Globes – against sexual harassment. Hollywood – women and men – came together to say enough is enough and wore black as a mark of protest against sexual harassment. As Amber Tamblyn said, “Black because we’re starting over, resetting the standard. Black because we’re done being silenced and we’re done with the silencers. Tonight is not a mourning. Tonight is an awakening.”
It is an awakening long due and long awaited. Sexual harassment, be it in Hollywood, the corporate world or anywhere else needs to be called out, because silence only fuels it, it only makes the predator more aggressive as many more women fall prey to it. We’ve now seen the pattern – be it Hollywood or companies like Uber, or even nobel-award- winning organizations on climate change (IPCC), women face it all the time, which is why the ‘Me Too’ campaign struck such a chord with women around the world.
And now the campaign has moved from ‘Me Too’, to ‘Times’ Up‘ Stop, which is what the wear-black at the Golden Globes was a part of – a sartorial statement that was not about
fashion (well, that too, this is Hollywood!), but about collectively coming out against sexual harassment.
Here are some images from the night..
Oprah Winfrey made a powerful speech while receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in which she spoke about sexual harassment and said that she wanted to express her gratitude “to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. “They’re the women whose names we’ll never know…speaking the truth is the most powerful tool we all have”.
