That was the main question posed at the Women in the World salon, held Tuesday at NeueHouse in Hollywood.
Reprising a powerful quote from her speech at the Women’s March in Los Angeles last month, Viola Davis said, “Nothing can be great unless it costs you something.”
4 comments:
Viola Davis' powerful words gleam true throughout many different circumstances and throughout many different time periods, “Nothing can be great unless it costs you something". I believe Viola Davis to be one of the most prominent, and perfect speaker for the #me too movement. People don't acknowledge that people of color have to do twice the work to get half the credit often times, in the process receiving everything from dirty looks to assault and harassment. In a business that requires agents, head shots, lessons, and means of transportation, getting on your feet starts to become nearly impossible for the impoverished, and even more so for people of color in those situations. With Viola Davis as an advocate, the me too movement transcends gender and race. When a director keeps tokenizing people of color, and constantly making roles for only white people, its hard not to take that personally. People have to understand that its not the way the cookie crumbles, the problem lies in the baking of the cookie.
Viola Davis is extremely inspiring to me as a person of color. Her comments about sacrifice and about poverty are extremely insightful. Viola Davis has lived a hard life and yet she is still willing to fight for what's right instead of what will help her paycheck. She has been dirt poor but she still isn't letting capitalism and the desire to gain money that occurs when you grew up poor effect whether or not she is being vocal about her childhood and the awful political climate we currently live in.
I am also very glad that Olivia Munn acknowledged the fact that people in Hollywood are not true activists and organizers. Protest is so much more than wearing black to a black tie event. Protest requires a lot of sacrifice. Munn is right, protest is sacrifice. And more actors need to be willing to do that for what's right.
I find this article very inspiring. I have loved watching Viola Davis as an actress and hearing her speak about the #MeToo movement and what changes still need to occur inspires me to want to do and learn more. The actresses who spoke in this article are right in the fact that this fight is not over. We can’t just let the #MeToo movement fade away after so many months going so strong. I just read the new sexual harassment code of conduct for sexual harassment in the work spaces and I don’t think that this kind of change would’ve happened this soon in my own lifetime without the #MeToo movement. I had the honor to listen to and meet Tarana Burke, the founder of this movement, and she was so strong and smart. I really enjoyed hearing her story and why the movement happened in the first place. A big part of her message was to be able to create that environment that allows women who have been victimized by sexual assault or harassment to speak up and be thanked for telling their story. I think that is also a big part of Davis and this article’s message too. We need to remember those who helped push this movement as we keep going forward with positive change.
I have always respected Viola Davis as an actress and public figure and have done a lot of reading about her and her counterpart from The Help, Octavia Spencer. These women are doing so much for the colored community as they rise in the ranks of the entertainment industry. For example, Octavia Spencer bought out whole theatres in impoverished communities so young colored people could see people whom look like they do in places of power. I actually hadn’t read much about Viola’s placement in the #metoo movement, but from this article it seems like she is proposing and supporting the position of being active and aggressive in the communities related to the movement. I agree with Munn that a lot of people are comfortable with the symbolism of the movements but aren’t that great at actually stepping forward and taking action against the discrimination taking place. It’s hard to stand up against others especially on sensitive topics like sexual harassment.
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