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Boring in black: the me too movement and the Golden Globes

February 7, 2018 By Julie Lomoe 7 Comments

I wrote this opinion piece soon after the Golden Globes and sent it to the Albany Times Union, but since they haven’t published it, I decided to share it here. Reading it now, nearly a month later, I stand by what I said then.

Awards shows are one of my guilty pleasures, and the Golden Globes has always been one of my favorites. I love seeing the celebrities partying at their round tables, ogling the fabulous gowns, wondering who will win, who will trip mounting the steps, who will drink too much and make embarrassing over-the-top speeches. But this year, the unrelieved blackness of all those dresses and the mandatory solemnity of the righteous cause of ending sexual harassment cast a pall over the proceedings. In a way, it was a funeral—for casting-couch Hollywood, for its routine harassment of women, and for its ingrained habit of shoving women out of the way in favor of men.

I’ve been a feminist ever since reading Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique when it came out in 1963, during my senior year of college. In August of 1970 I strode down Fifth Avenue with over 20,000 other women in the Women’s Strike for Equality, which culminated in fiery speeches by Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem and others in Bryant Park. That fall I joined an early Redstockings consciousness raising group, where we railed against all the injustices perpetrated on our sex by the males of the species.

There’s been positive change since then, but many of the issues we rallied against in 1970 are still with us today, including inequality in the workplace and sexual harassment. The #metoo campaign that kicked off with the outing of Harvey Weinstein in November has thrust these problems front and center, and rightly so. But never before have I encountered the divisive animosity that afflicts us today.

Weinstein is a creep and a criminal. And many of the men who have been brought down in his wake were guilty of heinous behavior toward women, or in some cases toward boys or men. Calling them out and shaming them in the public square may be an appropriate way to bring about change, but why the wanton destruction of careers in the rush to justice? Why single out and scapegoat only wealthy, powerful men when the same injustices exist at every level of society? Women in minimum-wage service jobs are afflicted by sexual harassment and intimidation every bit as much as millionaire actresses.

Al Franken’s resignation from the Senate troubles me most. A liberal Democrat and a devoted public servant, he was called out for behavior when he was a comedian, years before he entered politics. Pretending to touch a sleeping woman’s breast? Snaking an arm around a woman’s waist during a photo op in a public setting? Bill Clinton survived the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but nowadays far more innocuous behavior is grounds for instant condemnation. And it was women in the Senate, especially Kristin Gillibrand, who drove him into exile. I had always admired her, had high hopes for her political future, but she’s lost my vote. There are plenty of sanctimonious prudes on the far right; why must Democrats fall in line?

Before I became a feminist, and later a wife and mother, I was a single artist living in a loft in lower Manhattan, and I took full advantage of the swinging sixties. Did men ever make unwelcome advances? Occasionally, yes. Did these encounters traumatize me either emotionally or physically? No. I stood my ground, talked them down or—rarely—fought them off. I believe most women could say the same.

Today’s puritanical climate casts women as fragile flowers, men as predatory monsters. Even a casual pat on the shoulder can bring a career crashing down overnight. We’re becoming a polarized nation—left versus right, black versus white, immigrant versus born in the U.S.A. And now man versus woman, in a toxic escalation of the battle between the sexes.

Frances McDormand accepts the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” during the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Maybe we should banish all temptation by donning monastic robes, like the women in “A Handmaid’s Tale,” the award-winning show based on Margaret Atwood’s novel. I’m delighted Frances McDormand won the award for best actress in a drama, but she may also have made the most prophetic fashion statement of the evening with the long, shapeless black dress that totally disguised her body. No doubt cheap knock-offs will be available online any day now, so that millions of women can hide from the predatory male gaze.

Though the Golden Globes are old news, the issues I raised are still very much with us. Let me know what you think—let’s start a dialogue.

 

 

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Miscellaneous Musings, Pop culture, Social Action Tagged With: #me too, 1970 Women's March, Al Franken, feminism, Frances McDormand, Golden Globes, Julie Lomoe, sexual harassment

Comments

  1. Emily says

    February 7, 2018 at 9:36 pm

    Yes! I think you hit the nail on the head!

    Reply
    • Julie Lomoe says

      February 7, 2018 at 11:48 pm

      Thanks, Emily. Glad you liked what I had to say. And I loved hearing you speak at the recent women’s march in Albany. After posting this, I finally got a response back from the editorial guy at the Times Union. It had been languishing in a pile of unread submissions–maybe I should have been more asertive about following up. Well, there’s always a next time.

      Reply
  2. Sylvia - please select Barnard says

    February 8, 2018 at 10:47 am

    I think that the move against sexual harassment has gone a little bit overboard but is basically needed. I’m not a Democrat but a Green and I think it was important not to give Al Franken a pass because it shouldn’t be perceived that it is a partisan issue. The sexism of the Kennedys and other Democrats of our youth wd be beyond belief today. Maybe modern Dems are a little better behaved but my guess is that a lot of them are being given a pass.

    Reply
    • Julie Lomoe says

      February 8, 2018 at 1:22 pm

      Sylvia, I agree it shouldn’t be a partisan issue. I’m a life-long Democrat but I’m disgusted with the party these days. My father Wallace Lomoe was Managing Editor of the Milwaukee Journal, and as a child and teenager, I attended journalists’ conferences in Washington DC. I remember my mother saying she danced with Lyndon Johnson at a gala one evening, and he was a real lecher, with roving hands. She recounted the experience as humorous and it became part of our family history. Maybe her matter-of-factness rubbed off on me, since I still think patting a woman’s ass shouldn’t bring down someone’s career.

      Reply
  3. Therese L Broderick says

    February 8, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    Articulate essay, Julie. Nowadays, with so much savage hostility between warring camps, I’m almost unwilling to discuss any topic with anyone, unless the discussion takes place as a formally structured dialogue led by a trained monitor.

    Reply
    • Julie Lomoe says

      February 8, 2018 at 1:29 pm

      You’ve got a point, Therese. The Black Lives Matter movement is especially fraught, but I’m not known for shying away from controversy. On the FB page of Alexandra Sokoloff, a best-selling suspense novelist, I expressed an opinion along the lines of this essay, and I got flamed. One troll said nasty things about “woman-hating Julie–I’m glad I’m not her friend.” I replied I was glad I wasn’t her friend either. I generally avoid these discussions, especially on FB, because they’re a colossal waste of time and energy.

      Reply
  4. Larry Gambino says

    February 8, 2018 at 6:24 pm

    Julie:
    I think you analysis is correct. I think that there is a tendency to simplify these complex issues turn them into an ijdeologyx that says any objectionable behavior to a woman shsould be treated the same and punished equally.. There is another factor which is ignored, the capacity to be reformed. All of Al Frankins value lost because he can’t be trusted to learn from his mistakes.

    Reply

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Julie Lomoe brings a wealth of mental health and home health care experience to her mystery novels, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders and Eldercide.

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