The Importance Of #TimesUp

Written by Stacey Khizder

The 75th Golden Globes were on Sunday and nearly everyone stunned the red carpet in all-black in support of the hashtag, #TimesUp. The red carpet is always about who's wearing what, celebrities showed up in black to draw attention to their protest against inequality, sexual assault, and harassment.

There were several problems with #TimesUp and the coverage from the red carpet. Why did nobody ask why so many men in the room have been silent and compliant until now, when it's the 'right' and 'cool' thing to do? Why did no one ask pin-wearing James Franco about his past with sexual harassment and perusing of underage girls? Watching E!'s coverage was cringeworthy, especially when they dared to bring up pay inequality just weeks after Catt Sadler publicly left the network because she was severely underpaid in comparison to her male counterpart. 

Before you kick and scream that the entertainment world is becoming too political, think about the systematic sexism and bigotry that exist in the work place, especially in the entertainment and media world. 

Many self-proclaimed 'meninists' argue that feminism is sexist in its nature. They think that feminism favors women/females over men/males, when in reality, feminism fights for the equality between men, women, and everyone in between. But, why? Because white, straight men hold immense leverage over other groups in modern society, especially in the work place.

Privilege and oppression perpetuate inequality cross culturally. They influence someone's ability to access essential resources such as education, housing, high paying jobs, and more. In America, white, straight men hold a higher level of privilege than women/other of color, different sexual orientation, and of lower socio-economic status. This puts white, straight men in the dominant group of American society and culture, while everyone else is left behind to be unfairly oppressed. This cultural alignment is embodied in American history and in modern American culture, and is evident as white, straight men statistically make more money, get a better and more accessible education, have higher rates of success, and are able to get away with committing crime and inciting scandals -- as we've seen in the entertainment world. On Sunday, Natalie Portman called that shit out. It's time we stop leaving oppressed groups behind. While privilege is the problem, Intersectional Feminism is the solution. 

Intersectional Feminism fights for equality between all sexes, all genders, races, sexualities, socio-economic status's, religions, and people. There's nothing sexist about that.

Intersectional feminists need to align and stick together to fight the privileges that disadvantage the majority of Americans, and the Golden Globes kept this conversation going. 2018 is going to be the year of girl power, and it's going to be feminist as fuck.