There Will Be No Time’s Up Dress Code at the Oscars, but #MeToo Is Still on People’s Minds

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Make no mistake: Just because you don’t see a sea of diaphanous black gowns and sharp, black tuxes at the Oscars red carpet this Sunday doesn’t mean the Time’s Up movement didn’t show up.

Unlike the Golden Globes, around which the Hollywood-backed initiative born out of the #MeToo movement was announced, there will be no dress code for Academy Awards attendees to display their solidarity. At the Grammys, attendees wore white roses to show their support. But Time’s Up organizers told reporters Thursday the movement is about far more than red-carpet symbolism.

Time’s Up was “launched on the red carpet but was never intended to live there,” Shonda Rhimes told reporters, according to CBS.

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“There’s actual work being done,” added Ava DuVernay, another prominent Time’s Up organizer. “It’s not just a press opportunity. ... It’s not just an awards-show protest movement.”

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“We’re trying to build something that’s sustainable, lasting and serious,” she said.

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The Oscars are typically a night for Hollywood self-congratulation, so it’s unclear how Time’s Up and #MeToo will be addressed on a stage usually reserved for long homages to the “power of movies.” Particularly when it was a series of bombshell allegations against Harvey Weinstein (whose behavior had been hinted at during these ceremonies by previous hosts) that set the movement rolling in the first place.

But if some in Hollywood are eager to put Weinstein behind them, two street artists won’t let the world forget his legacy.

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On the same day the Time’s Up organizers spoke to reporters, a statue of Weinstein was erected near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The statue, a two-month collaboration between street artists Plastic Jesus and Joshua “Ginger” Monroe, according to ABC News, shows Weinstein on a casting couch—an allusion to dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct and rape that have been made against the film mogul. Multiple prominent actresses, including Ashley Judd, Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie and Lupita Nyong’o, have accused Weinstein of harassing them or soliciting sexual favors in return for advancing their careers.

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The statue, its creators say, was intended to draw attention to Weinstein’s abuses and the culture that enabled and protected them. Dressed in a bathrobe and pajamas, the garishly gold statue of Weinstein sits on the couch and looks out in the distance. One hand stretches out across the back of his seat; the other clutches a gold Oscar trophy.