Rose McGowan made her first public appearance since the news of Harvey’s Weinstein’s disturbing behavior first broke. She spoke at The Women’s Convention in Detroit on Friday, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Her speech focused on how women need to take the power back from their male harassers. She said that she has been “silenced for 20 years,” along with being slut-shamed, harassed and maligned.
“Because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society and that cannot stand and it will not stand,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The New York Times reported that McGown had reached a settlement with Weinstein after a 1997 hotel room encounter during the Sundance Film Festival. Though the actress had publicly revealed she’d been raped by a powerful studio boss, she did not comment on the story, reports The Hollywood Reporter. But then, the floodgates on the Weinstein story opened, and McGown tweeted about her alleged attacker, and later confirming to The Hollywood Reporter that Weinstein is the studio executive she says raped her.
Since then, she has been one of the louder voices on social media about sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood and the #MeToo movement. She was briefly banned from Twitter for tweeting a private phone number, which spurred a day of protest against the social media platform, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
During her speech on Friday, McGowan seemed determined to continue exposing the ugly side of Hollywood. She said that men are the ones telling the stories, and that 96 percent of the Directors Guild of America is male.
“That statistic has not changed since 1946,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “so we are given one view. And I know the men behind that view. And they should not be in your mind and they should not be in mind. It’s time to clean house.”
McGowan encouraged anyone who has been attacked to come forward and name their attacker, reports The Hollywood Reporter. She said now is the time to “be brave.”
The Women’s Convention is expected to draw thousands of women to its events. Events continue until Sunday.
Watch McGowan’s speech in the video above.
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