An argument I often hear from people is that things have gotten “too political”. The first time I heard this I was confused, how could something be too political? The more I heard this however, I began to recognize a common theme. These topics that many consider to be political are often involving social action. This statement is often made in response to singers, athletes, and other celebrities bringing up social justice in entertainment arenas.
However, what the individuals who are bothered by this are forgetting is that the celebrities are choosing these venues because they know it will have the most coverage. A rapper making a statement in a song on his album is going to have a lot more viewers than him singing it by himself in this apartment. That is the point of making the statement in the first place.
Recently at the Golden Globes, we saw everyone who attended wearing black dresses. Forcing everyone to recognize the unbalanced power, sexual harassment, and sexual assault within Hollywood. While I think the coverage of this event was shaky at best, this was the largest audience the Time’s UP movement has seen. Many celebrities brought activists as guests drawing even more attention to the hard work done by many to change this hostile climate.
While we recognize that there are many others doing hard work to bring about grass roots change that are not getting their deserved coverage. It is important these events happen because they will bleed over into the rest of society. For many that was the first time they had heard of the movement. Spreading information to that large of an audience could not have happened without celebrity coverage.
Peaceful protest is one of the hallmarks of our nation. But in order to protest you need an audience. The entire point of protesting is to draw attention to an issue within our society. To be honest, I enjoy when famous people make these statements. I believe that it shows that they are attempting to use their celebrity platform to benefit the greater good of society.