How Time’s Up, an organization established to help women, became an organization to defend male predators?
For Time’s Up, the anti-sexual harassment organization that emerged from the #MeToo movement, these have been turbulent weeks, and this weekend it is suffering from the loss of many people from its high-profile board of directors.On Friday, some famous board members Announcing that they are leaving Members from the organization include actress Eva Longoria, TV super-producer Sanda Remus and CNN contributor Hilary Rosen, as well as five other names.
This announcement was made promptly after the resignation of CEO Tina Tchen. She and other members of Time’s Up have been working with and on behalf of Andrew Cuomo in dealing with the disturbing allegations of sexual assault. Resigned after the revelation. Considering that their actions seem to directly conflict with the clear intentions of the organization, this is an amazing discovery.People have realized that this is not a unique reality, because there are many examples of Time’s Up taking steps to challenge its mission.
The organization aims to become an outstanding example of combating systemic toxicity and to support women through laws and corporate restructuring. Soon, after the Harvey Weinstein (Harvey Weinstein) scandal, hundreds of women from Hollywood, the press, and politics gathered together to form a coalition to fight the studio system and the company’s boardroom. Toxic structure. It provides legal assistance to victims and strives to change the law and the internal structure of the company to achieve gender equity.
This is important considering that names like Longoria and Rhimes are gradually disappearing They are touted as part of the founding three years ago. In the past year, Time’s Up has been exposed to operate in a very harmful way. It is responsible for addressing and repairing, and the reasons behind it are completely puzzling. When this is a brand new organization and is almost entirely composed of women, it is impossible to claim that it is a victim of the classic structure of male oppression.
Initial signs of trouble appear in 2019 Lisa Borders, then chief executive officer, was the former chairman of the WNBA. Her son was criticized for sexually harassing a woman at home and she resigned. This is a case of the organization being a victim of its own strategy because they were very outspoken at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. After arrogantly supporting the accusers without due process, they could not take the opposite position without appearing hypocritical-so Borders had to leave.
But in the past year or so, Time’s Up’s leadership has been willing to take strange moves without compromising. The fact that there are a series of problematic examples—any one of which will cause deep concern—shows how abnormal the organization has become.
- Last summer, Some members said they have problems Due to the leadership’s excessive focus on external issues and projects, these projects have established an image, but are not focused on taking action. One of the projects is a for-profit consulting department that proposes to advise companies facing sexual harassment claims.
- When allegations of sexual harassment were made against the candidate at the time, Joe Biden, he did not speak as loudly as Kavanaugh. The official position of Time’s Up is to support BidenIn fact, when his accuser Tara Reade came to ask for help, She was rejected by the group. This makes more sense when you understand that Tina Tchen, the then head of the legal department, was Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, and that the PR agency of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund was led by an adviser from Joe Biden’s campaign team.
- when. . .when Time’s Up financial disclosure Last fall, they stated that their highly promoted legal defense fund was seen internally as an afterthought. Despite raising millions of dollars each year, the defense fund only allocated more than $312,000. At the time, Lisa Borders’ salary was $342,000, and many others’ salaries were in a similar range.
- In March of this year, Time’s Up’s healthcare industry sector When the leadership refused to take action on behalf of members who were sexually harassed by male celebrity doctors, members resigned. Many executives, including the new CEO Tina Tchen, tried to stifle the problem, leading to external litigation, and then 18 members resigned.
- At the beginning of last month, Roberta Kaplan Resign as chairman According to reports, the lawyer has been coordinating public information and providing legal advice and other assistance to Andrew Cuomo and his staff accused of harassment, rather than helping female victims who have come forward.
- Just a week ago, Tina Tchen resigned as CEO after denying knowledge of Kaplan’s behavior Was reportedly blown into confetti Shows that Tchen has been informed of Cuomo’s statement and cancelled Time’s Up’s plan to publicly support one of the accusers
Before Tchen’s resignation, Shonda Rhimes telegraphed the turmoil that the organization was going through. On the weekend of August 21, she issued a public statement expressing her disappointment at the loss of control, while still supporting Chen.
“The mission of Time’s Up is to create a safe, fair and dignified workplace for all types of women. This mission is crucial. Time’s Up has been seen as a container and focus for men trying to cover up their obscene behavior, and this fact makes me exhausted. Saving men, especially predatory men, is not on the Time’s Up agenda. Humans have dominated the earth long enough, and we are pretty sure they know how to save themselves.Tina and her team are working to end the systemic patriarchy that has lasted too long, and I proudly support organizations that are fighting for this change. “
A few days later, Chen’s report not only knew about Cuomo’s work, but also actively participated in it, so she left. Now, Time’s Up has witnessed the large-scale departure of a large number of founders.As for the future of the group, this is unresolved and a bad omen. Discovered by visiting Go to its executive leadership web page. Rather than a list of names of those wearing this dress, it now only carries a concise statement:
We are currently in an evaluation and transition period. Please read this statement and continue to follow our board of directors for updates.
