The Flower Dress between the Black Dresses

When watching award shows in 2017 and 2018, one part becomes very noticeable: almost everyone seems to have followed one dress code: Wearing black. Why is everyone suddenly wearing black? They want to stand in solidarity with the #metoo movement.

The term “Me Too” dates back to 2006, when Tarana Burke, a survivor of sexual assault, started using the phrase “as a way to help women how had survived sexual violence”.

In 2017, the movement was re-sparked when actress Alyssa Milano posted a tweet reading “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet”. Shortly after, more and more women started talking about their experiences with sexual assault. The movement kept growing and more women and men opened up about their experiences. On January 7^th, the Golden Globes took place in Beverly Hills, CA and many of the celebrities wore black to stand in solidarity with the Time’s Up movement.

Why was black chosen the color representing the movement? “According to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which spearheaded the Globes blackout and aims to combat gender inequality in all industries, pretty much everyone owns something black. It’s not only serious, but democratic.” Historically, black, an expensive color, has been a color associated with mourning and sadness – but also glamour. During World Water II, black was worn to stand in solidarity with the troops. Lastly, it is a classy color.

Black has always been a popular color for fashion, but the Time’s Up movement has made the little black dress even more prevalent. Sales for black dresses have gone up by 225% in the last year .Fashion has always been a way to express yourself, but it has become even more important today. Retailers increased their production of dresses by 57% as well – trying to meet the demand of the people.

It is clear that black clothing has become such an important part to express that you stand with the cause. Yet, there were two women who did not show up wearing black at the Golden Globes. One of them was German celebrity Barbara Meier, who is known for winning Germany’s Next Topmodel. She was wearing a colorful dress with flowers, which visually stood out between the sea of blackness. The response to her decision was very negative and her fans were shocked to see that she did not seem to stand with the cause. On Instagram she went on to explain in a long caption why she chose this flowery dress. She started by explaining that she definitely supports the initiative and thinks it is extremely important but goes on to say “If we want that today the Golden Globes are for strong women, who are fighting for their rights, it is, in my eyes, the wrong approach to not wear form-fitting dresses anymore and thus taking away our pleasure of expressing our personalities through fashion. We fought for a long time to be able to wear whatever we want […] We should not have to wear black to be taken seriously. Us women should shine, be colorful and sparkle. […] That, in my eyes, symbolizes our freedom and new strength”.

In her eyes, it is going back in time dressing in black and not a positive statement. She thinks that women fought so hard to be able to wear what they want to that it is a good statement to dress sexy. It is a fair point because fashion is such an important medium of self-expression and by telling women they have to wear a certain color, it definitely takes away from their freedom of expression. On the other hand, no one said that the black dresses could not be ‘sexy’ or be used to express your personality. Maybe it was just a publicity stunt? According to Meier’s management, the initiative “Time’s Up”, is way too important to Meier to use it for PR uses.

Wearing black was supposed to be a statement and show how many people support the movement. Meier took it into a different direction thinking it was better to wear whatever she wants in order to empower herself. Talking about these topics and bringing awareness to sexual assault in Hollywood is extremely important in order to try to stop these horrible things from happening. It is important to have communal events such as wearing black, but it is also vital to have people who fight against unequal rights in other ways so that there is constant talk about it in order to one day have equal rights for everyone and decrease sexual assault in the film and media industry.