“I have been silenced for 20 years,” Rose Mcgowan said as she took the stage earlier today at the Women’s Convention in Detroit. She’s been tweeting up a storm since Harvey Weinstein started dominating the news a few weeks ago, but this marks the first time the actress-writer-director has spoken publicly in the wake of the scandal. She is among the many women Weinstein abused. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the “Charmed” alumna explained, “I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed. I’ve been maligned. And you know what? I’m just like you. Because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society and that cannot stand and it will not stand.”
McGowan reached a settlement with Weinstein after an encounter in a hotel room during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. She recently told THR that Weinstein raped her. She used her platform at the event to emphasize that gender inequality and sexual abuse aren’t problems confined to the film industry. They are everywhere and affect everyone. But this is partly Hollywood’s fault. She said, “It is the messaging system for your mind. It is the mirror that you’re given to look into. This is what you are as a woman. This is what you are as a man. This is what you are as a boy. Girl. Gay. Straight. Transgender.”
And it’s important to bear in mind who is creating this content and playing such a powerful role in affecting how we see the world. “It’s all told through 96 percent males in the Directors Guild of America,” McGowan said. “That statistic has not changed since 1946, so we are given one view. And I know the men behind that view. And they should not be in your mind and they should not be in mine. It’s time to clean house,” she urged.
The speech was timed to coincide with the launch of RoseArmy.com, which THR describes as McGowan’s movement “calling on women to raise their voices, fight for truth to ‘be a thorn and enlist.’” The “Scream” star explained that each strong women is her own rose because “we have thorns. Our thorns carry justice. And our thorns carry consequence. No more will we be shunted to the side. No more will we be hurt. It’s time to be whole. It’s time to rise.”
“The paradigm must be subverted,” McGowan declared. “It is time. We’ve been waiting a very long time for this to happen but we don’t have to wait anymore.” She added, “I came to be a voice for all of us who have been told that we are nothing. For all us who have been looked down on. For all of us who have been grabbed by the motherfucking pussy,” she said. “No more. Name it, shame it, and call it out. Join me.”
She concluded, “Pussies grab back. Women grab back. We speak! We yell. We march. We are here. We will not go away. My name is Rose McGowan and I am brave and I am you.”
McGowan’s directorial debut, “Dawn,” premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The 1960s-set short centers on a sheltered teen girl.
Check out the multi-hyphenate’s tips for fighting sexism in the film industry and head over to THR to check out clips of her speech.
