These Emotional Celebrity Speeches From the 2018 Women's March Will Get You Fired Up
One year after millions of people took to the streets in what became the largest single-day protest in the history of America, the Women's March returned, reignited by movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp, as well as the fight to protect DACA and immigrants' rights. And that's really only the beginning. (The government shut-down and Trump's recent comments about nations like Haiti provided ample fodder to fuel the crowds' frustration—and creative sign-making.)
In rallies across the country—from New York City to Atlanta to Los Angeles—celebrities took to podiums to shine a spotlight on topics like sexual harassment and racial justice, as well as rally crowds to vote in the midterm elections later this year. Speakers like Natalie Portman and Halsey made explicit references to their own experiences with sexual harassment and abuse. At Sundance, lawyer Gloria Allred pushed to bring back the fight for an equal rights amendment, saying, "No one has ever given women their rights," and adding: “We have been fighting for almost 95 years just to put women in the constitution to protect the rights of our daughters and we are going to have it.”
Here are the highlights from some of the most emotional speeches at the various Women's March rallies.
Viola Davis, Los Angeles "Every single day, your job as an American citizen is not just to fight for your rights, but it is to fight for the right of every individual that is taking a breath, whose heart is pumping and breathing on this earth. I am speaking today not just for the 'Me Toos,' because I was a 'Me Too,' but when I raise my hand, I am aware of all the women who are still in silence. The women who are faceless. The women who don't have the money and don't have the constitution and who don't have the confidence and who don't have the images in our media that gives them a sense of self-worth enough to break their silence that is rooted in the shame of assault and rooted in the stigma of assault."
Alyssa Milano, Atlanta "I really want you guys to look around at each other. I want you to look around and I want you to realize, that this, this right here is what democracy looks like. It doesn't happen automatically. It demands our action and participation. It challenges us but it also empowers us because at the end of the day, it is us. With [the] two words ['me too'], we regained our dignity and #MeToo connected us through our pain but it also connected us, and this is very important. It connected us each one of us to our own power and by saying #MeToo, we formed a bond that is unbreakable. We formed a movement that is unstoppable and when time comes time to vote, you're gonna prove that it's also unbeatable. Voting is how we prove that our country is so much bigger and kinder than one man that is in the White House. The good news is that in a democracy like ours, the real power is not with him, it is with you. Let me tell you, we've got a whole lot more love and hope on our side than they have a--holes."
Whoopi Goldberg, New York City "The only way we're going to make a change is if we commit to change. We have to decide that the people who represent us have to represent all of us. They can't represent some of us. We're all human beings and have a right to say, 'This is how I want to be spoken to. I don't want to be spoken to like you own me, like you think you can touch me when I say you cannot.' We are here to say—as women—we're not taking it anymore. It's just not going to happen."
Natalie Portman Women's March 2018
Natalie Portman, Los Angeles “I keep hearing a particular gripe about this culture shift, and maybe you have too. Some people have been calling this movement ‘puritanical’ or ‘a return to Victorian values,’ where men can’t behave or speak sexually around dainty, delicate, fragile women. To these people, I want to say: the current system is puritanical. Maybe men can say and do whatever they want, but women cannot. The current system inhibits women from expressing our desires, wants, and needs; from seeking our pleasure. Let me tell you about my own experience. I turned 12 on the set of my first film, The Professional, in which I played a young girl who befriends a hit man and hopes to avenge the murder of her family. [...] I was so excited at 13 when the film was released, and my work and my art would have a human response. I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me. A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday, euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with. Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews. [...] At 13 years old, the message from our culture was clear to me. I felt the need to cover my body and to inhibit my expression and my work in order to send my own message to the world that I’m someone worthy of safety and respect. The response to my expression—from small comments about my body to more threatening, deliberate statements, served to control my behavior through an environment of sexual terrorism. A world in which I could wear whatever I want, say whatever I want, and express a desire however I want—without fearing for my physical safety or reputation—that would be the world in which female desire and sexuality could have its greatest expression and fulfillment. That world we want to build is the opposite of puritanical. So I’d like to propose one way to continue moving this revolution forward. Let’s declare loud and clear: The is what I want. This is what I need. This is what I desire. This is how you can help me achieve pleasure. To people of all genders here with us today, let’s find a space where we mutually, consensually look out for each other’s pleasure, and allow the vast, limitless range of desire to be expressed. Let’s make a revolution of desire."
Halsey, New York City The singer has been vocal about her own emotional struggles in the past—including describing a miscarriage she experienced right before a performance—and for the Women's March she read a raw, intense poem called "Story of Mine" that that nodded to her own experiences with sexual abuse. The poem begins with an account of the rape of a friend of hers and its aftermath: "It's 2009 and I'm 14 and I'm crying / Not really sure where I am but I'm holding the hand of my best friend Sam / In the waiting room of a Planned Parenthood / The air is sterile and clean, and the walls are that not grey, but green / And the lights are so bright they could burn a whole through the seam of my jeans / My phone is buzzing in the pocket / My mom is asking me if I remembered my keys 'cause she's closing the door and she needs to lock it / But I can't tell my mom where I've gone / I can't tell anyone at all / You see, my best friend Sam was raped by a man that we knew 'cause he worked in the after-school program / And he held her down with her textbooks beside her / And he covered her mouth and he came inside her / So now I'm with Sam, at the place with a plan, waiting for the results of a medical exam / And she's praying she doesn't need an abortion, she couldn't afford it / And her parents would, like, totally kill her."
Halsey then recounts her own history with abuse, saying: "It's 2002 and my family just moved and the only people I know are my mom's friend Sue and her son / He's got a case of Matchbox cars and he says that he'll teach me to play the guitar if I just keep quiet / And the stairwell beside apartment 1245 will haunt me in my sleep for as long as I am alive / And I'm too young to know why it aches in my thighs, but I must lie, I must lie." She later describes a 2012 relationship with a man who forced her to perform oral sex: "And he wants to have sex, and I just want to sleep / He says I can't say no to him / This much I owe to him He buys my dinner, so I have to blow him / He's taken to forcing me down on my knees / And I'm confused 'cause he's hurting me while he says please / And he's only a man, and these things he just needs / He's my boyfriend, so why am I filled with unease?"
See Halsey perform the full poem here:
Eva Longoria, Los Angeles "This march and this movement is far more ambitious in scope and scale and it extends beyond one political actor or even one political party. What we're calling for is sustainable and systematic change to the experience of women and girls in America. A change from fear and intimidation to respect. From pain and humiliation to safety and dignity. From marginalization to equal pay and representation." (Source: CNN)
Tessa Thompson, Sundance “Until we see legislation and policy and a president who respects our humanity…we must continue to gather and tell each other’s stories. [...] We are here to say Mr. Trump…your time and power may not yet be up, but our time to stay silent is." (Source: Variety)
Scarlett Johansson Women's March 2018
Scarlett Johansson, Los Angeles “I have recently introduced a phrase in my life that I would like to share with you: no more pandering. No more feeling guilty about hurting someone's feelings when something doesn't feel right to me. [...] I had many relationships where the power dynamic was so off that I had to create a narrative where I was the cool girl. It allowed me to have the approval that women are conditioned to need. Moving forward means my daughter growing up in a world where she doesn’t have to become a victim of what had become the social norm. [...] It gives me hope that we are moving towards a place where our sense of equality can truly come from within ourselves."
Olivia Munn, Los Angeles "I'm asking all of you to be the team member for every woman in your life. Refrain from judgment. Be the rock of understanding be the well of empathy. Right here, we all have the power to make sure that our daughters, nieces, granddaughters, great granddaughters, grow up with a mentality, that if you come from one of us, you come from all of us." (Source: CNN)
Olivia Wilde, Los Angeles "This is a winnable fight, but we need everyone to work together to make it happen. We must reach across cultural divides and recognize our power as an undivided force. This means white women need to hold up our end of the fight. Not just coming to rallies with likeminded others but reaching deep into our own families and communities deep into the places where women wore t-shirts that read, "Trump can grab my p***y," and have courageous conversations about what freedom really looks like." (Source: CNN)
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