Many women — both inside Hollywood and across the country — are unsatisfied with the effort men put in to help raise awareness for sexual harassment at Sunday night’s Golden Globes Awards.
Prominent actresses publicly vowed to wear black in support of sexual harassment victims, and some wore pins with the phrase “Time’s Up” to protest sexual misconduct.
Here we come!! And DAMN, my wife is hot! #TIMESUP #whywewearblack pic.twitter.com/q0XWH6XR68
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) January 7, 2018
But not everybody was pleased with the exhibition last night. Angry viewers voiced their complaints on Twitter. And — surprise — most of their frustrations were directed at one gender.
Not a single man who accepted a #GoldenGlobes tonight spoke out about sexual assault, #MeToo, or #TimesUP.
Wearing a black tuxedo isn’t enough. We need men to SPEAK UP and stand beside us to fight to end sexual assault & rape culture.
— NARAL (@NARAL) January 8, 2018
Has a male recipient mentioned #TIMESUP yet?
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) January 8, 2018
Apparently the answer is no. I thought I might have missed one, but no such luck.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) January 8, 2018
The hilarity in thinking men would say anything. And since Terry Crews wasn’t presenting..did you really expect men, who benefit the most from Hollywood to say shit? https://t.co/mIYH6sdlQP
— Yesha (@YeshaCallahan) January 8, 2018
This is so important because it illustrates the emotional load that women carry when trying to succeed. Women spend half their speeches talking about sexism and how happy they were with the bravery of women coming forward in the past year. They fit in some thank yous too. https://t.co/L7xNcuwCvJ
— Jaime Santos (@Jaime_ASantos) January 8, 2018
Nope. But Honorable mentions to the Handmaid’s Tale Guy shouting out resistance trying to stop handmaid’s Tale from being real. And the LadyBird producers who DIDN’T TALK – except to say the only person who should talk is the woman director/creator.
— Katie Unger (@KUngernyc) January 8, 2018
Really makes me think “big fat NOPE” is the answer to “will men do real work to help fix the issue of sexual harassment/assault and power/pay inequity?”
— Mallory Yu (@mallory_yu) January 8, 2018
I mean, I think some of them are scared of saying the wrong thing. But we have to stop being scared.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) January 8, 2018
Not one dude Golden Globes Winner talked about the #MeToo movement in his speech. Knowing this industry their publicists probably told them it would be better for them. Men feminism literally CAN NOT succeed without us. It’s time for us to #stepup #timesup #goldenglobes pic.twitter.com/9Ylqy1Tv53
— Benjamin O’Keefe (@benjaminokeefe) January 8, 2018
It’s … rich of James Franco to be wearing a Time’s Up pin
— Doree Shafrir (@doree) January 8, 2018
Whatever I still remember James Franco trying to pick up a teenager on Instagram
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 8, 2018
Some users were quick to point out that not every single male in attendance Sunday night ignored “Me Too.”
Del Toro and Sterling K Brown both did. Seth Myers certainly did.
— Craig Shames (@CraigSEsquire) January 8, 2018
Last night’s host Seth Meyers was likely under the most pressure to mention Hollywood’s issue with sexual harassment. He did mention the issue several times, even joking that “there’s a new era underway — and I can tell because it’s been years since a white man was this nervous in Hollywood.”
“This Is Us” actor Sterling K. Brown was praised for bringing awareness to discrimination against black people in Hollywood when he thanked his producer for writing a black man into the drama. “And so what I appreciate so much about this thing is that I am being seen for who I am and being appreciated for who I am. And that makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me, or dismiss anybody who looks like me,” he said. His speech was hailed as being “#MeToo-adjacent,” and “#MeTooToo.”
But others were quick to point out the hypocrisy of asking men to legitimize the “Me Too” movement.
I’m seeing shade being thrown at the fact that no man said anything about #MeToo at #GoldenGlobes tonight.
Here’s the thing: we’ve also seen that when men do weigh in, they’re told this is not the time for them to speak, it’s time for them to shut up and let women speak
— Bitter Script Reader (@BittrScrptReadr) January 8, 2018
Correct. And isn’t the whole point that men listen, not speak? Isn’t the whole point that we’ve heard their voices enough and women’s need to be heard?
— Liz Tray (@LizTray) January 8, 2018
I think a lot of men did not speak towards #MeToo is because if they did they’d have a target on their back and they know people would deep tissue search their backgrounds and make a headline out of any contradictions. cowardly, but I think that’s what happened.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) January 8, 2018
The Golden Globes aftermath makes it even more unclear exactly what the “Me Too” protestors wanted to accomplish. Last night’s perceived male silence will almost undoubtedly add more fuel to the patriarchal protesting fire.