Weinstein Survivors Are Calling Out Time’s Up

On January 1, Time’s Up posted a video celebrating its one-year anniversary. The video highlighted some of the organisation’s successes over the past year, including raising over £17.5 million for a legal defence fund for survivors of sexual assault in the workplace, and featured prominent supporters and members of the organisation, including Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, and more.

But one group of people were absent from the video: the women who accused Harvey Weinstein of assault and harassment. Reporter Yashar Ali pointed out the video didn’t include Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, and Annabella Sciorra. And some of those women were not pleased.

Time’s Up was founded in January 2018, a few months after Sorvino, Arquette, Sciorra, and others accused Weinstein of assault. (Weinstein denies the accusations of nonconsensual sex.) The Time’s Up website cites “the fall of 2017” as the starting point of the organisation, but does not mention #MeToo or Weinstein’s accusers. The new Time’s Up video does feature a photo of Tarana Burke, who started the #MeToo movement in 2006.

Whether the lack of inclusion was an intentional omission or simply an oversight is unclear. But some Weinstein survivors feel that Time’s Up, which has been accused of elitism before, ignored the women who made it possible in the first place.

“Not that I expected to be included but it’s nice to know some are following the narrative,” Sciorra wrote in response to Ali’s tweet.

Sarah Anne Masse, another actor who accused Weinstein of misconduct, also responded.

“I wasn't asked if I wanted to be involved. I would guess none of my fellow Weinstein sister survivors were either,” she wrote.

Rosanna Arquette told The Wrap that she couldn’t watch the video because she was so hurt by her and other accusers’ exclusions.

“A lot of big egos got in the way and shoved us to the side and did not include us in the conversations,” she said. “It’s just like, wow. Really?”

In a statement provided to Refinery29, Time’s Up said:

“The look-back video commemorates an intense year filled with progress, persistence, and resistance.Thanks to the powerful testimony of women and men around the globe and across industries who began to share their trauma and draw strength and community from one another, we’ve seen real, positive change. Time’s Up is honored to be guided by the work of Tarana Burke, countless survivors who have shared their truth, and activists who have led the fight against sexual assault for so long.”