In a powerful speech at Detroit’s Women’s Convention, actress and activist Rose McGowan spoke out against sexual assault, and presumably, alleged predators Harvey Weinstein and President Donald Trump.
In her first public appearance since accusing Weinstein on October 12th, McGowan, delivered an address in support of all women, and in particular, those who have shared in her experience of sexual assault, declaring, “We are all 'Me Too’s'.”
“I have been slutshamed, I have been harrassed, I have been maligned, and you know what? I’m just like you,” McGowan said. “I’m just the same as the girl in the tiny little town raped by the football squad.”
McGowan is among five women accusing Weinstein, the famous Hollywood executive, of sexual assault, and one of 58 who have claimed Weinstein committed some form of sexual misconduct toward them at some time. Since news broke of Weinstein’s actions in a New York Times article on October 5, Weinstein has lost his job and position on the board of The Weinstein Company, been separated from his wife, lost his membership in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, had his name taken off films still in production and lost a variety of famous allies.
McGowan has been powering through what she notes has been a “triggering” time. “The monster’s face [is] everywhere, my nightmare,” she said. “But I know I am not alone.”
Not only did she allude to her alleged rapist, but she too warned the “head monster” that, “pussies grab back." It was undoubtedly a reference to President Donald Trump. The president was caught in a controversy during the 2016 election cycle when video footage surfaced of him bragging that he could do “anything” he wants to women because he is famous — most notably “grab ‘em by the pussy.” Trump’s comments caused outrage worldwide, though it eventually became background noise among Trump’s many other scandals.
McGowan said there is little difference between the two figures, her monster and the head monster. “They are the same, and they must die,” she declared. “The paradigm must be subverted. It is time.”
McGowan also spoke on the general lack of representation minorities face in Hollywood, in which she said 96% of the Directors Guild of America is made up of men, a longstanding statistic since 1946. "Its time to clean house," she said.
McGowan has called upon all women to come together and join her “Rose Army” — a movement “about all of us being roses in our own life . . . because we have thorns [which] carry justice . . . and consequence.”
“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,” she finished. “We’ve got this, I know it.”
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