Portside

This conversation should be bigger than Aziz Ansari.

Oprah lit. it. up. at The Golden Globe awards in her acceptance speech. Once Winfrey took the stage, she delivered an inspirational, uplifting speech which discussed race and gender and the fight for equality. "For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men," Winfrey said, bringing the audience to its feet. "But their time is up. Their time is up."

300 powerful women in Hollywood have announced a new group called Time's Up to lead a national campaign against the systematic sexual harassment of women from Hollywood to working-class communities across America.. Among those taking part are actresses Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington, as well as producer Shonda Rhimes, Universal Pictures chairwoman Donna Langley, and lawyer Tina Tchen. (Daily Beast)

For the #MeToo moment to become a meaningful movement, it has to focus on actual gender equality. Lewd stories about this or that man's behavior might make compelling reading, but they sidetrack the real crisis... Until we effectively challenge the ideological underpinnings beneath social policies that hem women in at every turn in this country, we won't get at the root cause of the harassment.

If we get rid of a handful of Harveys while losing essential rights and protections for millions of women, are we really winning this thing?

A new film looks at the 1944 gang rape of Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper. Following the rape, she refused to be silenced and spoke up with help from the NAACP’s chief rape investigator Rosa Parks.

Sexual harassment is often understood, like other forms of gender-based violence, as a violation of consent. It is more than that.

Feminism is now being weaponized for right-wing agendas. We must not allow that to happen.