The red carpet was set because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association celebrated the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night.
From Dunkirk to Game of Thrones, several of your favorite movies and TV shows were nominated for these awards.
As you watched the Golden Globe Awards, you might have wondered why a great number of nominees and guests were wearing black.
Fashion as a tool for protest.
Since Harvey Weinstein's allegations and the United States presidential election in 2016, actresses and actors are increasingly using fashion to protest at award ceremonies.
During the Golden Globes, the great majority of nominated actresses (all but three) showed support for victims of sexual harassment by wearing black dresses.
In addition, they were promoting the Time’s Up campaign. This campaign is a unified call for change from women in entertainment for women everywhere. These women are working to end tolerance for discrimination, harassment or abuse, and to address the systematic inequality in the workplace.
They believed that time's up for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse against women and girls across all countries.
The facts:
17,700,000 women have reported a sexual assault since 1998, according to the Me Too movement.
1 in 3 women ages 18 to 34 have been sexually harassed at work. According to a Cosmopolitan survey of 2,235 full and part-time female employees, 71% of those women said they did not report it.
Nearly half of working women in the U.S. say they have experienced harassment in the workplace as revealed by a NBC News' poll in 2017.
More than one-third of the world’s countries do not have any laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work, leaving nearly 235 million working women vulnerable in the workplace as stated by World Policy Center.
According to Women in the Workplace, approximately one third of women think women are well-represented when they see one-in-ten in leadership positions.
The Economic Policy Institute stated in 2017 that white non-Hispanic women are paid 81 cents on the white non-Hispanic men's dollar. Asian women are only paid 88 cents on the dollar. Black women are paid 65 cents on the white male dollar, and Hispanic women are only paid 59 cents.
Who took who?
That's a great question.
To take the protest to another level, eight actresses each invited advocates for gender or racial equality as their guests to the award ceremony.
Michelle Williams took civil rights activist Tarana Burke. In 2006, Burke created the “Me too” movement to raise awareness for sexual abuse. The Harry Potter star and HeForShe ambassador, Emma Watson, attended with Marai Larasi. Larasi is director of Imkaan, a U.K based women organization dedicated to end violence against black girls and women, and co-chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition.
Meryl Streep’s guest was Ai-jen Poo. Ai-jen Poo is director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the co-director of Caring Across Generations. Shailene Woodley, the Fault in our Stars and Divergent star, attended the awards with Calina Lawrence. Calina is a latina activist that is popularly known for being a Native Treaty rights advocate.
Amy Poehler’s plus-one was Saru Jayaraman. Saru is the president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United and ROC Action. Emma Stone was accompanied by Billie Jean King. King is the founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and the co-founder of World TeamTennis.
Independent journalist Rosa Clemente and the National Farmworker Women's Alliance's co-founder, Monica Ramirez, were the plus-ones of Susan Sarandon and Laura Dern, respectively. The National Farmworker Women's Alliance is an organization devoted to help female farmers have their voice heard.
Oprah for president?
Seconds after winning the Cecil B. de Mille Award, Oprah Winfrey gave an inspiring and meaningful speech that brought tears to the eyes of women, girls, and men across the globe.
After becoming the first black women to ever receive this award, she touched upon the concerning matter of race inequality, gender inequality, and sexual harassment. She mentioned that these injustices are not
"...just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It's one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, workplace, politics, or workplace."
Also, she expressed her beliefs about how we have been living in a men controlled world for centuries, and as a result, women have not been heard or believed in countless circumstances related to abuse.
Oprah ended her speech by saying,
"I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon. And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of who are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders to take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again."
What are people tweeting about this?
How can I help?
So glad you asked.
We may not all be celebrities whose voices are heard everywhere, but we can fight against sexual harassment and abuse too. There is plenty of work left to be done, and there are a great number of campaigns, movements, organizations, and nonprofit organizations that you can get involved with.
Here's a list:
Me Too
Reliance
Time's UP
Stop It Now!
End Rape On Campus (EROC)
Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE)
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN)
Is time really up?
That's a remarkably controversial question.
All around the world, women and girls live in misery because they are constantly facing inequality, discrimination, and sexual abuse.
Is this misery really coming to an end?
A red carpet protest won't entirely eradicate this issue. But, it certainly helped by generating buzz and empowering women and girls to fight back and speak out.
Your modest contribution to a nonprofit organization won't eliminate this problem either. But, it can aid someone who is suffering physically and emotionally because she was sexually abused once or several times throughout her life.
Therefore, if you add every goal, no matter how gigantic or minuscule, that individuals and organizations are accomplishing to end violence against women and girls, then you will be able to recognize that these are times of enormous changes.
Maybe time isn't up now.
But, it will be soon.