Actress Rose McGowan Gives Speech at Women’s Convention

This morning in Detroit, actress Rose McGowan gave a keynote speech opening The Women’s Convention in Detroit, Michigan. According to the website, the convention “is a weekend of workshops, strategy sessions, inspiring forums and intersectional movement building. Tapping into the power of women in leadership as the fundamental, grassroots force for change, participants will leave inspired and motivated, with new connections, skills and strategies for working towards collective liberation for women of all races, ethnicities, ages, disabilities, sexual identities, gender expressions, immigration statuses, religious faiths, and economic statuses.”

Speaking About Harvey Weinstein

This was the first time McGowan has spoken publicly since news of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein‘s disturbing behavior broke on October 5th. The story referred to McGowan as being on of Weistein’s alleged victims. She had previously revealed that she was a rape survivor, her attack being perpetrated by a studio boss, but never named any names. It was not until the Weinstein story broke that McGowan tweeted about her alleged attacker. She has become a prominent voice on social media since the first report about Weinstein, even calling for the entire board of the Weinstein Company to resign.

 

 

Earlier this month, she spurred on a day of protest after Twitter suspended her account when she tweeted out a private phone number, which violates their Terms of Service.

 

McGowan said that the last few weeks have been a difficult and “triggering” time, saying that it has been hard to see her “monster’s” face everywhere. Yet she also called for this to be a time to be brave, saying, “In the face of unspeakable actions from one monster, we look away to another. The head monster of all right now.”

Finding Your Power

Actress Rose McGowan and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke

McGowan’s speech was an impassioned one, empowering women to take back the power from their abusers. “I have been silenced for 20 years. 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.

Roughly 5,000 women gathered in Detroit’s Cobo Arena to hear McGowan open the event organized by the founders of the Women’s March on Washington this past January.

“Hollywood may seem like it’s an isolated thing, but it is not. 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. But it’s all told through [majority of] males in the Directors Guild of America…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 my mind. It’s time to clean house.”

Speaking directly to others who had been victimized, she encouraged those who had been attacked to come forward and name their attackers.

“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… No more. Name it, shame it and call it out. Join me.”

Rose Army

Timed to her speech was the launch of RoseArmy.com, a movement for women to raise their voices and fight for the truth, to “be a thorn and enlist.”

She explained that each woman is her own rose, saying, “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.”

McGowan ended her speech on a fiery note, raising her fist and calling out, “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.”

 

The Women’s Convention takes place October 27-29 in Detroit, Michigan.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter