As thousands and thousands of sexual harassment and #MeToo accounts from women come to the surface, sparked by the recent allegations against Harvey Weinstein, actress Amber Tamblyn said she believes that the outpouring of these stories is thanks to President Donald Trump. And before you go, “What?“—after all, the president has been accused numerous times of sexual harassment and assault—it actually kind of makes sense.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan published Saturday, Tamblyn discussed why Trump’s election victory might have prompted women to finally come forward with stories formerly kept silent.

She has her own story, too: in September Tamblyn spoke out against actor James Woods with her own account of how he tried to pick her up when she was just 16. Recently, the social media platform has exploded with similar accounts about men in Hollywood. “We have never in the history of this country had an opportunity in the way that we have right now to share our stories so publicly and be believed,” she told Cosmo. And women’s bravery to step up and tell their stories, she says, stems from Trump winning the election.

“I think that without him being elected, if it had been Hillary
Clinton, this would’ve never happened to Harvey Weinstein. I feel like
the election of Donald Trump was a singular pointed message at women
telling us that our lives don’t matter, and that our safety doesn’t
matter, and that our physical health doesn’t matter, our reproductive
rights don’t matter, that our gender just doesn’t matter, and that we
are somehow owned by the country. I think within that one move, it was
a giant gesture, and Donald Trump symbolizes, for most women—not all
of them—he symbolizes and epitomizes everything that is deeply wrong
with masculinity and with the objectification of women. And so within
that single vote, it sort of was like a switch was flipped on and
every woman just went, ‘I’m done.’ It’s as simple as that: ‘I’m done.'”

She adds that before all of this, a woman who accused Weinstein of raping her wouldn’t have been taken seriously. One such woman, actress Rose McGowan, who has been a driving force on Twitter against Weinstein, delivered the opening remarks Friday at this weekend’s Women’s Convention in Detroit.

“I have been silenced for 20 years,” McGowan said. “I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed… Because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in society, and it cannot stand and it will not stand.”

Tamblyn agrees—and thinks that Hollywood’s culture is finally changing and will continue to change for the better. “We’re at the beginning of a real change. I believe that,” she told Cosmo. “A lot of the interviews that I’ve given and people I’ve talked to have said, ‘Do you think it’s really going to change? Do you think it’s really going to stick?’ And I do; I do, actually. I just think it’s going to take time and patience, and a lot of love and compassion and understanding between us—meaning women, all women.”

Related Stories:
–The Frame That Holds the Big Picture: How Mothers and Daughters Can Change the Way We Talk About Being Women
–Amber Tamblyn Just Posted a Harrowing Personal Account of Sexual Assault to Her Instagram Page

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