We show you 4 organizations that have been formed as a result of this movement to guarantee gender equity in the world of entertainment

On October 15, 2017, #MeToo began to be used on Twitter for the first time. Days earlier, allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Wenstein had come to light. It is clear, after a year, that almost no woman gets rid of being a victim of some type of harassment or intimidation in the workplace. This movement was also replicated in different languages ​​and different parts of the world, which showed that it is not a cultural issue, but a global problem.

Leer en español: Un año de #MeToo: Este ha sido su impresionante impacto

A few days ago, the first case of #MeToo in Hollywood was condemned: a judge from the State of Pennsylvania sentenced the famous 81-year-old comedian Bill Cosby from 3 to 10 years of prision. Harvey Weinstein is currently waiting to be called to an audience for three cases of rape (although there are actually 75 complaints against him) and could be facing life in prison.

While it is necessary justice for these specific cases, what the #MeToo movement has demonstrated is that these are not particular cases, but that it is a generalized problem. That is why the movement has not only left complaints and judicial processes, but also organizations that help women victims of harassment or gender injustice to report and feel protected. Here we show you some.

Time's Up

From the denunciations of October of 2017, a group of actresses of Hollywood began to gather. On 1 January of this year, a letter was published in the New York Times titled Time's Up, signed by more than 300 actresses, film producers, and industry professionals, who aimed at 'our dear sisters' (Dear Sisters).

Also read: #MeToo in the courts: What happened with Bill Cosby’s case?

The letter tried to express to peasant women victims of sexual violence something of solidarity and understanding and also to tell them that even the privileged women of Hollywood lived the same violence in their work environment. You can read the letter here .

This would be the beginning of a group whose purpose is to gather donations to provide legal assistance to women of all social classes, who are victims of harassment or gender injustice at work. This group was born in Hollywood, but it is designed to help women in any work environment. On January 7 of this year at the Golden Globe ceremony, actresses and actors dressed in black to show solidarity with this cause and to donate themselves to the legal aid fund provided by Time's Up.

#WoYeShi

While in the New York Times the letter of Time's Up was published, in China, women also broke the silence. According to El Diario, Luo Qianqian denounced the harassment she had suffered 12 years ago by her university professor, opening with this a multitude of complaints in China. By then, the government had demanded that the press not give so much coverage to the #MeToo movement, but with the avalanche of complaints the translation and dissemination of the hashtag was inevitable: they all said Wo Ye Shi (me too).

In the United States, Time magazine named the actress of Silence Breakers as the person of the year. A student in China, then, inspired by what happened in the rest of the world founded a student initiative based on this group of actresses. She created a campaign against harassment made by herself that had great reach. In China, there is also the strong activism of the journalist and writer Hong Fincher, who fights against censorship and machismo in China.

5050by2020

With the #MeToo movement, centered mainly in the systematic cases of sexual harassment at work, other gender debates were also unleashed. From this, awareness campaigns on the gender wage gap were created, for example.

Since then, there have also been many cases of wage inequality between men and women in the world of entertainment. For this reason, 5050 by 2020 was created, an organization whose goal is equal pay in Hollywood for the year 2020. Although it seems like is a different problem, this group is not so far from sexual harassment. For 5050B2020, if we recognize men and women as equals, and therefore pay them equally, the figures for workplace harassment will decrease.

The main task of this group is to study inequality to destroy it. Its main contributions to the study of the problem are the figures that it updates every so often about the inequality in Hollywood. It is not only about salary figures, but also about representation of minorities in Hollywood productions and also about job opportunities for men and women in the film industry. Every day they have been interested in other issues beyond those of gender, which is why they have become spokespersons for minorities in Hollywood.

Also read: A Royal inequality: wage gap in the Netflix series The Crown

#NiUnaMenos (Not one less)

Latin America seemed to take the lead in this regard. The movement of the #NiUnaMenos hashtag in Argentina was before the #MeToo movement, but it was reinvented when it reached social media. This slogan emerged in 2015 when women marched in different Argentine cities against the chilling figures of gender violence in Latin American countries.

This movement spread to other countries in the southern cone and Latin America until it reached Mexico, a country in which domestic violence figures are also scary. This slogan revived with the #MeToo movement and also with the debate on the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina.

However, although the hashtag #YoTambién (MeToo) had great reception in Latin America, a year after its emergence, no one yet knows of any man in the entertainment world who has lost his position due to complaints. Nor are there organizations that are specifically responsible for the defense of gender equity in the entertainment industry. The debate is already entering the cinema and television, but there is still much to discuss.

LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Rodríguez
Translated from “Un año de #MeToo: Este ha sido su impresionante impacto”

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