It’s time to take stock of #timesup

Let’s be clear here. Celebrities will flop as activists if they cannot get their act together. There is trouble in the ranks in show business. There is abuse and loads of hypocrisy. A lot of muck has been thrown about but the guilty are still out there, trying to fix their lives with the help of counsellors, psychologists and doctors. They have money to burn and may even be resorting to out of court settlements to keep it hush. Show business is dealing with the problem like it is a common medical and social disorder when they should find real solutions through the law. So where are the criminal cases against these monsters? Where are the trials and the convictions? Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Roman Polanski, and several others, have been named and shamed. Their careers are finished, almost. Serves them right, but Hollywood and the music industry appear to be a law unto themselves. If these men are rapists and indulged in sexual assault, why are they still roaming free?

When we hear speeches by stars draped in designer black at the Bafta, we have our doubts. It’s showtime, folks! Monologues about making the industry a better place for women are way off the mark if the guilty go unpunished. And it doesn’t take long to see through this charade. Actors, singers would be better off doing what they do best. Making political and social statements over the din of celebrity parties, speeches and designer apparel are hardly convincing for the ordinary men and woman faced with real problems. No one takes these celebrities seriously. The #timesup movement made it to the Baftas across the Atlantic, and we applaud the effort. Having said that, we didn’t see Hollywood feature when Daesh committed atrocities against women and treated them as sex slaves; when girls were kidnapped and abused by the Boko Haram; when women were slaughtered in Syria and Afghanistan; when they are trafficked. They endure what is worse than abuse. There’s angst and excruciating agony. Entertainers are walking into a celebrity trap with #timesup — an elitist definition of the abuse of women. What could have been a movement has turned into an awards show.