When you think of Oprah

Winfrey, you think self made

woman. She has literally built
her empire from the ground up
and she still continues to do so.
She is an inspiration not just for
black women, but for all women.
She has been one of the biggest
supporters when it comes to the
#Metoo movement. I’m going to
be talking about Oprah Winfrey,
her influence on the #MeToo
and #TimesUp movement and
how she uses her social media
platform.

First I will begin with her

childhood. For the first six years of Winfrey’s life, she lived with her grandma in Mississippi. Her
grandma only hoped for her to better and stronger than a maid. Her grandma would always
preach to her if she just got in good with the “white folks” that will treat you right. She knew at a
young age, that wasn’t going to be her.

When she was seven, she moved to live with mother. That’s when things took a turn. She was
raped when she was nine years old . At 10 years old, she was molested by her cousin’s boyfriend
following after her father’s brother. She ended up running away from home and got pregnant.
She carried the baby until it was born. The baby died shortly after the baby was born and she
knew this was her second chance.

In 1980 (almost 40 years ago), Oprah was co-anchoring with a white, caucasion man on a local
television show. She was getting paid $22,000 and her co-worker was making $50,000. Her
boss questioned her why. Soon after she was hired to host the morning show “AM Chicago”
which later became “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. Once the show was getting bigger, she knew her
team needed to get paid more. Winfrey went to the boss and told the boss at the time that her
team deserved a raised and the boss at the time said “Why? They are all women.” That’s when
she knew she wanted to start her own studio company so she could make the decided on who
gets what paycheck. Harpo Studios took off
in 1988 and her talk show became the
highest rated talk show in television history.

On her talk show, she used her platform to

support women. She wanted women to
know that they matter. Regardless if you
have been divorced, abused, etc., your past
doesn’t define you.
Now I will be focusing on when Oprah Winfrey received the Cecil B. de Mille Award at the 2018
Golden Globes. When the Golden Globes had taken place, the Harry Weinstein investigation was
in full effect. Many big time celebrities were coming forward about being sexual assaulted by
Harry Weinstein and using the hashtag #Metoo. Winfrey’s speech was almost 10 minutes long
and it was heartfelt the whole time. To finish my blog post, I want to end with what
Winfrey said in the end of her speech at the Golden Globes. This was the perfect time to
shine light on the #Metoo movement and what it stood for.

In my career, what I've

always tried my best to do,
whether on television or
through film, is to say
something about how men
and women really behave.
To say how we experience
shame, how we love and
how we rage, how we fail,
how we retreat, persevere
and how we overcome. I've
interviewed and portrayed
people who've withstood
some of the ugliest things
life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to
maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. So I want all the
girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new
day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are
right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to
make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has
to say "Me too" again.