Jan 29, 20183 min read

Is Time Really Up?

One of the biggest events in pop culture happened last night and people have opinions about it, myself included. While you’ll see hundreds of articles talking about who wore it best or what new memes we’ve made out of this night, you won’t see many about the huge issue looming over everyone’s heads; Me Too.

How is it that we’ve constructed this entire movement to empower women and let their voices be heard, yet it’s still dominated by men? You have an array of talented women being recognized for their work despite the obstacles, yet He keeps coming out on top. This isn’t to discredit any men who were nominated and/or won, more so to talk about what no one really wants to.

Courtesy of INQUIRER.net

All year, you’ve had people coming out and telling their experiences with sexual assault. The ‘Me Too’ movement gave a voice to those who’d been silenced for too long and took some of the weight off of the victims’ shoulders, yet not much has come about after all of this. Even after the Golden Globes, where everyone chose to wear black to stand in solidarity with victims of sexual assault, women still weren’t at the forefront even though it was them who had to endure. The same thing happened at the Grammys, white roses to symbolize everyone’s “solidarity”.

Courtesy of Hello Magazine

A color or flower isn’t enough to make people aware, and not aware of what’s happening because everyone is, but aware of what can and should be done. Instead of nominating all of these talented women and saying you stand in solidarity with them, give them what they deserve. Awards for the hard work they put into an album after years of barely escaping their sexually abusive producers. Awards for the hard work they put into a movie they had to do while their assaulter was standing 20 feet away from them. Don’t give them awards because they’re women and we’ve all been assaulted one way or another; give them awards because, despite these burdens, they still managed to give a kickass performance and smile like they’d never been touched.

No one wants an unfair or biased outcome for these kinds of things. No one is saying to give every woman an award because of what they’ve been through, although they deserve it. What we want, and what we all should want, is for the assault to stop. We want people to achieve their dreams and goals because they’ve earned it and have worked for it, not because they were manipulated into sleeping with the director to get a part or because they wanted their work to reach larger audiences.

Stop saying you hear these women when you silence them by not giving the recognition they deserve. Stop saying you support these women when you give recognition to their assaulters. Stop creating political trends when we need action.