Over 300 writers, directors and actors have come together in a new campaign to combat systemic sexual harassment in the entertainment business and other workplaces.
Time’s Up is a new campaign that was announced in New York Times and includes women such as Emma Stone and Natalie Portman.
“The struggle for women to break in, to rise up the ranks and to simply be heard and acknowledged in male-dominated workplaces must end; time’s up on this impenetrable monopoly,” the ‘solidarity’ letter on the website reads.
The campaign includes a $13 million legal defence fund to help those women who are not able to afford to protect themselves from sexual misconduct.
Following the spontaneous #MeToo campaign that came following revelations about sexual predation and gender-pay disparities in Hollywood. Between October and December 2017, the viral hashtag was used over six million times on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB).
The Time’s Up campaign also comes following Time magazine’s decision to name women and men who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment – “the Silence Breakers” – as its “Person of the Year” for 2017.
Goals of the initiative include promoting legislation to penalize companies that tolerate harassment and fighting against the widespread use of non-disclosure agreements which are often used to protect sexual abusers.
“This is a moment of solidarity, not a fashion moment,” said actor Eva Longoria. “For years, we’ve sold these awards shows as women, with our gowns and colours and our beautiful faces and our glamour. This time the industry can’t expect us to go up and twirl around. That’s not what this moment is about.”
Actor Reese Witherspoon said: “We’re finally hearing each other, and seeing each other, and now locking arms in solidarity with each other, and in solidarity for every woman who doesn’t feel seen, to be finally heard,”