Do women need actresses and singers to fight for our rights? This one definitely does not.
On Wednesday night the BRITs turned out to be predictable parade of piety with everyone sporting a white #MeToo rose.
Last weekend, 200 women, including Emma Watson, Carey Mulligan, Emilia Clarke and Saoirse Ronan, signed an open letter from ‘women in entertainment’ setting out their goals of equality and justice for all.
The letter was addressed ‘Dear Sisters’ and launched the Time’s Up movement in the UK.
The BRITs turned out to be predictable parade of piety with everyone sporting a white #MeToo rose (Pictured: popstar Dua Lipa posing on the red carpet at the awards ceremony on Wednesday night, with a fashionable white rose in tow)
It followed a similar letter in the New York Times, which raised $21 million for a legal fighting fund to support women who’ve experienced sexual misconduct and discrimination.
Time’s Up grew out of the #MeToo movement which, in a few months, has connected with millions of women all around the world, giving a voice to people who previously had hesitated to speak out.
According to the UK sisterhood, ‘This movement is intersectional, with conversations across race, class, community, ability and work environment, to talk about the inbalance of power’.
As a mission statement, it’s full of ambition and 100% worthy. But laws are already in place in most civilised countries covering almost every aspect of their agenda.
There’s nothing a pop star or a performer likes better than a worthwhile cause – it gives them a platform to feel they are ‘helping’ the less well advantaged (Pictured above: Perrie Edwards, left, and Rita Ora, right, holding the floral symbol of the #MeToo movement)
As for sexual predators- it’s scandalous that a great many powerful men have abused their positions for decades, and underlings of both sexes have been treated with disrespect and contempt.
But is Time’s Up going to help factory workers, the lower paid and the unwaged?
The women left behind by men, the women bringing up kids in squalor in rural USA and our inner cities?
The women who are beaten up in secret by their partners? The young women who are kept out of school, the child brides?
Time’s Up has been founded by those in the entertainment industry and the media- professions which are highly paid at the top end, afflicted with self-regarding award ceremonies and public displays of vacuous power-film festivals and premieres with their red carpet cattle pens.
I can’t tell the difference between the Academy Award posing areas and a prize cattle show, and actresses are still going along with the publicity charade, in spite of #MeToo and Time’s Up, and some will still be hoping to get noticed that little bit more than another woman.
But is Time’s Up going to help factory workers, the lower paid and the unwaged? (Pictured: Janet Street-Porter)
The day after she turned up at the BAFTAs On Sunday in severe black in solidarity with #MeToo, it was business as usual on the red carpet for Jennifer Lawrence promoting her latest movie in a revealing couture dress.
And the day after that she braved the weather on a freezing in a low-cut dress slashed to thigh. At least it was black in solidarity with #MeToo. And she is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after, genuinely talented young actresses, still succumbing to the old rules – using flesh to sell the product.
There’s a danger this grass roots movement – which started as a powerful response to jerks like Weinstein and Trump – is being hijacked by luvvies who want to refashion feminism to suit them, preferably wearing a designer dress.
There’s nothing a pop star or a performer likes better than a worthwhile cause – it gives them a platform to pontificate, a feeling they are ‘helping’ the less well advantaged, without having to go to the bother of running for political office or doing anything as demanding and challenging as getting elected by people outside their business.
Commentators criticise #MeToo at their peril – the actress Catherine Deneuve and 100 french women – intellectuals, academics and writers – dared to express the thought that it ought still be possible to enjoy being lusted after by a man and not be considered a slut.
The trials and tribulations of women in the media and the entertainment industries seem a side issue compared to the real injustices women face today (Pictured above: Holly Willoughby clutches a pale single flower on the red carpet at the event)
#MeToo gave forgotten women a way to express themselves, but real help for women comes through the grind of local politics, charities like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (Pictured above: Cheryl Tweedy and boyfriend Liam Payne at the BRITs)
The backlash was horrendous. Perhaps the words were designed to provoke and could have been expressed more subtly – but Deneuve swiftly recanted and apologised to the victims of sexual abuse.
Mary Beard, the distinguished classicist and TV presenter, has commented that the #MeToo movement, while useful, seems ‘too obsessed with isolated incidents’, a tactic which will not solve the problem of sexual misconduct.
She too was trashed on social media.
At this rate, we could end up with self-censorship, which would be appalling.
What qualifications do these entertainment industry feminists have to speak on behalf of the oppressed?
They have made a bizarre choice for a career.
If I had a daughter (or a son) I would not want them to act, it’s a job full of downsides – the possibility of constant rejection at auditions, an unhealthy focus on appearance over intelligence, and an obsession with youth, unless you are a very rare woman indeed- like Helen Mirren.
An actor operates at the whims of a team – dictated to by producers and directors.
The vast majority of actors are cogs in a wheel, not leaders or bosses.
That’s not a role model I can sign up to or recommend. Sure, we need more women working as directors, producers and studio heads – but it’s more important to ensure that FTSE 100 companies have women occupying 50% of board positions.
More from Janet Street-Porter For Mailonline…
And women should own 50% of the seats in the British Parliament or the US Congress.
How about making Trump’s staff 50% female? That would change his agenda overnight.
The trials and tribulations of women in the media and the entertainment industries seem a side issue compared to the real injustices women face today.
The hundreds of young girls who are still being groomed for sex by men with ethnic backgrounds in the North of England.
The thousands of mothers who are fleeing domestic violence, who struggle to find a place in a refuge or hostel as funding is cut by local councils.
Wearing a trendy pussy hat won’t help them – their lives can only be improved with money, with safe housing, and with free childcare so that they can find any sort of a job.
#MeToo gave forgotten women a way to express themselves, but real help for women comes through the grind of local politics, charities like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Labour MP and former deputy party leader Harriet Harman wrote this week’ ‘women have changed the mood, now we need to change the policy…we need to ensure that male dominated hierarchies are a thing of the past’. Her own party is regularly criticised for aggressive behaviour towards any women who disagree with the hard left- so how does Harriet propose to bring about this pink tinged revolution? It’s so easy to have lofty ideals, but I refuse to let Emma Thompson and her pals hijack feminism.
We need women running for political office to bring about real change.
It’s not about pay differentials on a film set, but giving a supermarket cashier the same pay as a bloke in a warehouse. Will you be picketing your local Tesco, Emma?