Army Rose: How "enchanted" struggles with sexism in Hollywood
The last days everyone just talks about Harvey Weinstein - The main Hollywood producer, who was accused of harassment by dozens of famous women in Hollywood: Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Asia Argento, Lea Seydou, Cara Delevingne, Rose McGowan and many others. The latter hinted that Weinstein had raped her a year ago.
For a couple of years, McGowan became a real equality icon, launching the most visible campaign against sexism in Hollywood. We understand why the star of "Charmed" dared to lose her job, why she criticized Caitlin Jenner and how she became a real role model for all women in the industry.
Childhood in the sect and the black list of feminists
The first ten years of her life, Rose McGowan spent in the totalitarian sect "Children of God" in Florence, where it was considered the norm sexual violence. After her father learned that "Children of God" decided to introduce rituals related to pedophilia, the family fled to the United States. After the move, the parents of the future actress went their separate ways - Rose lived with her mother, then with her father, or even outside. At thirteen, she even got into a rehabilitation clinic because of her passion for LSD. Then Rose took herself in hand, went to the course of stylists to pay for college, but life judged differently: after a cameo in the comedy The Guy from Encino, she never returned to the packs.
The films came one after the other - from the legendary "Generation Doom" to "The Dangerous Trio" and "Traveling". Finally, McGowan was offered to star in Charmed, the project that brought her the greatest fame. She noticed the problems already then: she was not paid for the first film at all, the casting seemed too frank for "Generation of Doom", and with "Charmed" she was renewed with a contract for five years instead of the promised two. “There was a feeling that I was just robbed for several years of life,” says McGowan. After more than twenty years of acting in Hollywood, McGowan decided to try her hand at directing and debuted with great success at the Sundance Festival in 2014 with the short film Dawn. At about the same time, she decided to stop talking about sexism in the industry.
It all started with the fact that McGowan made fun of twitter sexist recommendations for the actors of the new series Adam Sandler. She was told to come to the shooting "in a tight black blouse with a neckline (push-up is welcome) and tight leggings or jeans." The actress posted a screenshot of the recommendations and accompanied them with an ironic comment. The next day, agents broke the contract with her and she was on the so-called black list of feminists in Hollywood.
McGowan later explained that she was offended most of all by the script, and that none of the team was embarrassed by the sexist notes on the margins: “People think this is normal!” Stating that actresses in Hollywood are disrespectful, McGowan decided to change things: "I have a position, and it is that we should try to become better."
Trump and #ROSEARMY
Moving away from filming in the mainstream movie, McGowan continued on her way as an activist. In 2015, she attended a joint meeting of Democrats and Republicans. After two hours of white men talking about what the Americans want, she could not stand it and made a speech: "I am shocked at what is happening here. It seems that you are not interested in teaming up with real citizens. And by the way, I do I understand correctly that every republican voted against equal pay for women? "
McGowan was quickly interrupted, but she managed to ask politicians to give women the right to dispose of their bodies, to pay them fair wages, and most importantly - to pay attention to all Americans, and not just white men from the middle class. Later, McGowan tweeted that she disrupted this event and considered it her direct duty as a person from the field of art to criticize power.
She continued to attack the Republicans further, publishing an open letter to the then presidential candidate Donald Trump. McGowan called him a "poison" and a "mass catastrophe," stressing that Trump took hostage large media that mislead Americans: "We are sick. Trump is like cancer in the body of our country, and we should not tolerate this for a single minute. I a proud citizen of America and the world who bends in a fit of pain because of him. " In the end, McGowan urged Americans to be brave, and journalists to turn off microphones and not allow Trump to "poison the country further." The letter ends with a call to join her under the hashtag #ROSEARMY, which will later become a sign of the fight against violence in Hollywood.
Transphobia and homophobia
Not only did Trump and Sandler get away from McGowan: the director and actress quarreled with Caitlin Jenner, the most public American transgender woman, and in the past, the father of the Kardashian family. In 2015, Glamor magazine recognized Jenner "woman of the year." The response of celebrities was ambiguous, especially after Caitlin said that the most difficult thing for a woman was “choosing the dress up on the carpet.”
McGowan was indignant and wrote that Jenner has no idea what it means to be a woman. "You became a woman? Then, damn it, understand that our life is completely different from yours, full of male privileges. Woman of the year? No, until you join the fight. To be a woman means to have a lot behind your back, the weight of an unfair story. You should have understood that, "McGowan wrote. After that, accusations of transphobia fell on her predictably, but the director said that she had only called Jenner to justice and was ready to fight her shoulder to shoulder.
McGowan also criticizes the LGBT community for being indifferent to women's issues: "Homosexual men hate women as much as heterosexual ones, if not more." In her opinion, women have done a lot for the empowerment of homosexuals, while those who achieved their right to gay parades pretend that they have nothing to do with the other oppressed group. In general, McGowan is not just another public person, who maintains equality between times, but a linguistic activist, sometimes seriously deviating from the principles of intersectionalism and liberal rhetoric.
Weinstein and the boycott of twitter
“Hollywood was my illness,” McGowan wrote in her column in i-D Magazine. “The agents just said that I had to wear long hair, otherwise men would not want to have sex with me, and then I would not get a job.” For a long time she felt that she had to look the way the industry required, and she felt humiliated. Finally, at the end of 2015, McGowan shaved her head, uploaded a video from the barbershop to instagram, called it an important step towards liberation and, in her words, stopped looking "like an inflatable sex doll." Soon after, the activist launched a line of merch with a photo of herself with a shaved head and the inscription "ROSE ARMY". All funds from the sale of T-shirts came to the Women's Center of East Los Angeles, which helps victims of sexual violence and abusive relationships.
But McGowan took her most courageous step after another scandal around Donald Trump occurred on the Internet. Quite a few women admitted that he sexually harassed them, but they were afraid to go to the police. Under the #WhyWomenDontReport tag, women talked about how they were confronted with sexual abuse. McGowan, in turn, said that she had been raped by a famous Hollywood producer.
However, according to McGowan, she was immediately given to understand that it was pointless to bring the case to court, because no one would believe an actress who had ever acted in a bed scene. McGowan said that the whole Hollywood knew about this incident, but they only laughed at her, and the rapist was in every possible way covered. Worst of all, her ex-boyfriend sent homemade porn to the criminal with McGowan.
However, this year it turned out that the producer who raped McGowan was the infamous Weinstein. Rose said that he paid her one hundred thousand dollars for silence - she transferred the money to a charitable foundation. Moreover, McGowan announced that she had reported the crime to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who sponsored the Weinstein company, but did not receive any reaction.
Against the background of the scandal, McGowan began to actively write on Twitter about the situation with Weinstein, calling for the responsibility of people from Hollywood who knew about the violence, but preferred to keep silent. As a result, her account was blocked because her words violated the rules of the social network. Probably, it was about aggressive attacks against Ben Affleck and Donna Karan. Supporters of McGowan responded by launching the #WomenBoycottTwitter hashtag, demanding that the activist be given back the opportunity to speak publicly.
While The New York Times for a long time decided to tell the truth about the main producer of Hollywood, McGowan began her struggle alone, and there is no reason to doubt her sincerity. In her desire to change the system, she made mistakes: she fell into a transphobia, accused LGBT people, offered to call women by the letter N (not surprisingly, African-American people were against her). However, such as McGowan - loud and fearless - are especially needed by Hollywood in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. It's time for the industry to listen to women and change the rules of the game.
Photo:Spelling Television, Dimension Films
