The Time’s Up Campaign has the potential to be a force for good. It is estimated that 2 out of 3 rapes are never reported, so it’s incredibly important that we start conversations like these, to build a culture where it’s acceptable to report crimes such as sexual assault. Instead of reporting on the good being done by the campaign and furthering that agenda by encouraging people to donate, the Time's Up has become about the turnout, the performance and the praising of allies. On the red carpet, it was about who was wearing black, not who had done any real activism. Despite Time’s Up Cambridge raising funds for both international charities and the Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, it was about showing up for a photo, with donation being an afterthought. 

Time’s Up is more than lazy, it’s the bare minimum, it’s self-serving. You can't put “going” on a Facebook event and parade around in lectures in, let’s be real, an outfit that’s pretty similar to what you wear normally, and praise yourself for being an activist ‘making a difference’. Harriet Fisher, the organiser of Time’s Up Cambridge said she was inspired by the “bravery” of the women in black on the red carpet. I’m sorry, but that’s not brave. To me, being brave is continuing to go on after you’ve been sexually assaulted: working, studying, succeeding, even existing. Things which are, you know, actually difficult. Being brave is not taking a vague and superficial stand in front of a camera.

“Time’s Up is more than lazy, it’s the bare minimum, it’s self-serving”

Time’s Up isn’t intersectional and is harming people of colour. Sexual violence disproportionately affects women of colour – we know this, and yet it’s still incredibly hard to get up to date, UK-based statistics because of the racist biases in research institutions, which lead to a lack of interest and research in issues affecting women of colour. In a 2000 American study by Tjaden and Thoennes, 7% of black women identified themselves as having been raped. In 2017, RAINN estimated that “Native Americans are twice as likely to experience a rape/sexual assault compared to all races.” For UK violence statistics in general, according to ONS in 2015, the percentage of people from the “mixed/multiple ethnicity” group who were victims of violent crime (including sexual violence) was almost three times higher than those from the “white” group. Meanwhile, the percentage of people from a “black/African/Caribbean background” was more than four times higher. Where is the focus on this disparity throughout the campaign? The Time’s Up website addresses the pay gap between white and BME women, but nothing else. Organisations such as INCITE! address this issue, it’s an organisation which aims to “place women, gender-nonconforming and trans people of colour at the center” of their anti-violence movement. Closer to home, there’s IMKAAN, “the only UK-based, second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black minoritised women and girls”. There is a wilful ignorance regarding racial issues and the erasure of PoC’s voices, meaning that organisations and movements which tackle these issues are overlooked.

Black women have been the forefront of movements of this nature, and have continually had their efforts be overlooked, or even credited to white women. Look at #metoo, which started over ten years ago with activist Tarana Burke, yet the movement has been credited to women such as Rose Mcgowan and Alyssa Milano. It’s only when issues are headed by white women that they are given airtime. Even in Cambridge, the Breaking the Silence Campaign is making a real difference to people’s lives in Cambridge, and started with CUSU Women’s Officer Lola Olufemi. Where is her picture outside the UL? Where is her credit? Activism led by BME women is continually overlooked, while white women who take centre stage in movements are heralded. We already live in a culture where people of colour underreport sexual harassment, due to (among many other factors) police brutality, fear of not being taken seriously or harmful stereotypes surrounding hypersexuality, and Time’s Up is continuing to exclude BME people from its narrative and perpetuate a culture where violence against them isn’t taken seriously.

“The Breaking the Silence Campaign is making a real difference to people’s lives and started with CUSU Women’s Officer Lola Olufemi. Where is her picture outside the UL? Where is her credit?”

Anyone can take part in Time’s Up but it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free-card for being problematic. You can’t show up in black, give yourself a pat on the back and consider yourself an activist. You know who was in black sporting a Time’s Up pin at the Golden Globes? Aziz Ansari. You know who was accused of sexual assault a few days later? Aziz Ansari. I bet you that Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen and Louis CK would also be dressed in black that night if their allegations hadn’t already come to light. The support of Time’s Up means nothing. Activism isn’t easy. If it was easy, we wouldn’t need to do it. Here’s what you can do as an ally if you want to help make a real difference to end sexual violence and the stigma which surrounds reporting it:

1. Talk and listen

Start conversations with your friends, create safe spaces for conversations surrounding sexual assault to happen. Respect them and believe them. Go to exhibitions such as “Survival and Feminist Persistence” which opens on the first of March at Churchill College.

2. Challenge

Challenge dangerous or predatory behaviour (if safe to do so!) when you see it. Tell a bouncer in a nightclub if someone’s being inappropriate, tell the person sitting behind you in lectures that their rape joke was unacceptable.

3. Don’t accept it

Cut out the friend you know is problematic, boycott talks or lectures given by sex offenders, start discussions regarding reading material set in seminars (for example, Sartre who is continually placed on a pedestal, but who groomed children. Don’t allow your faculties to excuse this behaviour because of academic prestige.)

4. Support

Go to the Reclaim the Night march and Vigil on the 11th of March, keep up with Womcam and Cambridge Defend Education events, support organisations such as INCITE! by buying their zines and artwork, encourage any political societies you may be a part of to show their support and arrange group trips to demonstrations.

It’s so important to not be complacent. Analyse your own behaviour, take steps to be better, don’t make excuses for friends and family, and take pride in being that person who says “Well, actually…” at dinner parties.