Here at The Glow Up, we love seeing women in power. But much more important and inspiring is to see women use the power they have to empower other women.
That’s why we’re giving a #WomanCrushWednesday hat tip to the 300-strong all-female alliance behind the #TimesUp movement. The powerhouse group of women, which includes Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, Rashida Jones and entertainment attorney Nina L. Shaw, are doing the work of dismantling inequity and abuse—not only for themselves but also for the least privileged among us, as stated by their call to action:
TIME’S UP is a unified call for change from women in entertainment for women everywhere. From movie sets to farm fields to boardrooms alike, we envision nationwide leadership that reflects the world in which we live.
Word. And while we deeply appreciate the fact that these women are joining, lobbying and fundraising for women much less privileged than they are, we also appreciate that instead of appropriating and piggybacking off of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo hashtag and movement—which was initially created for black and brown girls—these women are adding to the rallying cry by initiating a complementary coalition that specifically leverages their public presence when it comes to calling out sexual abuse for all women, as they have with Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (the National Farmworker Women’s Alliance):
[W]e see you, we thank you, and we acknowledge the heavy weight of the common experience of being preyed upon, harassed and exploited by those who abuse their power and threaten our physical and economic security. We have similarly suppressed the violence and demeaning harassment for fear that we will be attacked and ruined in the process of speaking out. We share your feelings of anger and shame. We harbor fear that no one will believe us, that we will look weak, or that we will be dismissed; and we are terrified that we will be fired or never hired again in retaliation.
We also recognize our privilege and the fact that we have access to enormous platforms to amplify our voices. Both of which have drawn and driven widespread attention to the existence of this problem in our industry that farmworker women and countless individuals employed in other industries have not been afforded.
With the Golden Globes approaching this weekend, we are gratified to see that the black dresses on the red carpet this year will be more than simply a symbol of solidarity, and that action is not far behind.