A letter to Rose McGowan.
Dear Rose,
I stumbled across this tweet chain today and it made me so angry it took me the entire day to collect my thoughts. No, Rose, you were not the first. Tarana Burke was working on #MeToo while you were still endorsing a convicted sex offender, who you knew was a convicted sex offender, to magazines.
Those “fancy people wearing black” at the Golden Globes, whom you are pretty sure would never have lifted a finger if not for you and the army you’ve named after yourself, comprise a vast amount of sexual abuse victims who were brave to speak out. America Ferrera, she was there. Evan Rachel Wood was there. Mary J Blige, she was there – you’ve met her, but you don’t care to know her story?
Tarana Burke was also there, wearing black. How dare you say she “wouldn’t have lifted a finger” if not for you!
So what I’m getting from you, Rose, is that you’re perfectly happy to use black women to make yourself look good when the cameras are around, but only too happy to throw them under the bus (and take credit for their work) when they’re not. And then there’s the homophobia, and the transphobia. Apologies aren’t enough if you don’t change your behaviour. Which you have not done.
Anyway, as another white woman I really and truly don’t want you speaking for me. Or anyone. So far, you’ve been awful. We good? Okay.
-An Enemy of the Movement