None of the Male Winners at the Golden Globes Talked About Time's Up in Their Speeches
To call last night’s Golden Globes ceremony powerful would be an understatement. Just six days after some of Hollywood’s most influential women launched Time’s Up, an organization dedicated to ending gender imbalance and sexual harassment in the workplace, the entertainment industry at large gathered for the annual Globes show—and it was unlike any previous year.
The female attendees, nominees, and winners used the evening to bring more awareness to Time’s Up and sexual assault survivors. Several brought important activists as their dates for the evening. Both Eva Longoria and Debra Messing called out E!—while on E!—for not giving Catt Sadler equal pay. Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern each gave moving speeches about the women’s movement. Elisabeth Moss read a Margaret Atwood excerpt following her win. And Oprah’s speech brought the house down—and Twitter to tears.
But one group of people stayed frustratingly silent: the men. None of the male winners mentioned Time’s Up or sexual assault survivors in their speeches last night. Not even Alexander Skarsgård, who won a Best Supporting Actor award for Big Little Lies…in which he plays an abusive husband. (In his speech, Skarsgård even referred to his female BLL cast mates as “girls.” Cringe.) Neither did Sam Rockwell, who portrayed a violent cop in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.
The divide between the male and female attendees last night was perhaps most apparent during James Franco’s speech for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist. He used the opportunity to thank what seemed like every man he’s ever known and physically pushed Tommy Wiseau—the subject of The Disaster Artist—out of the way when he joined him on stage. The night before, Franco hosted a dinner party for all the Globes Best Actor nominees. It was an actual boys’ club.
Twitter users noticed the men’s silence, too—and they weren’t happy about it.
https://twitter.com/rebekahentralgo/status/950185382385201152
Every man who appeared on stage last night had a chance to voice their support for women—and they missed it completely. In order for us to see real change when it comes to gender inequality and sexual harassment, we need to see loud, vocal support from both men and women. Now is not the time to be passive. Yes, it’s important that men listen and allow women to lead these conversations, but when they have an opportunity to rally behind them publicly—on live television, no less—they should take it.
There is a silver lining, though. Many of the men Glamour interviewed on the red carpet were quite outspoken about the Time’s Up movement. “I’m first and foremost a feminist,” Milo Ventimiglia from This Is Us told us. “Seeing a sea of black and knowing that we’re all speaking up for some great injustices that have happened not only in our industry but across many, many industries and many, many different businesses—it’s the time to speak up and stand up. Equality, equality, equality.”
Darren Criss added, “I feel really inspired by the amount of people who’ve turned out for the all-black. I thought there was going to be somber overtones to it, and I have been proved completely wrong. It’s more of a celebration of a communal resilience, and it’s less lamenting about things that have come to pass and more looking toward the future of what we can do together.”
If only we heard more quotes like these last night during the broadcast—when millions of people were watching. Just imagine that impact.
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