Actress Shailene Woodley: #MeToo Movement ‘Ushering in Sacred Matriarchy’

Actress and liberal activist Shailene Woodley took to Instagram on Tuesday to declare that this year’s Golden Globes and the Time’s Up anti-sexual harassment movement are “ushering in sacred matriarchy.”

“I’ve been trying to find the right words for a week now… the right words to accurately describe what this years @goldenglobes meant to me,” Woodley wrote in her exhaustive post, adding, among other things that “it meant that we are slowly learning to remove labels and stand united no matter what cloak we wear. It meant that we are slowly but surely ushering in sacred matriarchy.”

The 26-year-old actress, who walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes alongside Native American activist and artist Calina Lawrence, said it meant so much to her to “witness an industry that for so long has been divided by competition, fear, ego, jealousy, comparison (all products of patriarchal conditioning) radically put aside these destructive paradigms in order to unite & heal.”

Woodley was up for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role in the hit drama Big Little Lies. 

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i’ve been trying to find the right words for a week now… the right words to accurately describe what this years @goldenglobes meant to me. what it meant to walk that carpet hand in hand with my sister @calinalawrence as she spoke so fearlessly and gracefully about the realities indigenous women live with day in and day out. what it meant to wear responsible jewels from @forevermarkusa who donated a generous amount to @timesupnow. what it meant to witness hundreds of my colleagues & peers wear black in an effort to visually represent the unification of our voices & intentions. what it meant to witness an industry that for so long has been divided by competition, fear, ego, jealousy, comparison (all products of patriarchal conditioning) radically put aside these destructive paradigms in order to unite & heal. what it meant to witness that fiery truth @oprah shared in person while tears streamed down the cheeks of her audience. what it meant to see so many men standing tall & listening earnestly to women who for so long have been silenced-to see them genuinely care to help heal these scars both genders bare. from the week i took to process it all, i suppose i can say this: it meant that my children have a shot at growing up in a world where women, and men, across ALL industries put their seeming differences aside in order to support one another’s healing. it meant that we are learning to remove labels & stand united no matter what cloak we wear. it meant that we are slowly but surely ushering in sacred matriarchy. it meant that we are living in a time where our voices can be used to carry & amplify all those songs our ancestors sung as they too fought their battles & sacrificed their lives for us. it meant that we are realizing, divine love. to all of the artists who won last sunday: congratulations. thank you for moving us to our cores. & to all the people who stood in solidarity (& continue to) in the @timesupnow movement, thank you for your hearts. we’re only at the bottom summit of this mountain called Healing, but hey, we gotta start somewhere. and, this is what we were made for. we were born to do this shit.

A post shared by shailene woodley (@shailenewoodley) on Jan 15, 2018 at 1:33pm PST

The Fault in Our Stars actress praised Oprah Winfrey’s politically charged acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille, in which she called for a “time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me Too’ again.”

“To all of the artists who won last sunday: congratulations. thank you for moving us to our cores. & to all the people who stood in solidarity (& continue to) in the @timesupnow movement, thank you for your hearts,” Woodley wrote. “We’re only at the bottom summit of this mountain called Healing, but hey, we gotta start somewhere. and, this is what we were made for. we were born to do this shit.”

Last year Woodley, who supported and campaigned for Bernie Sanders‘ failed White House run, told the New York Times she wouldn’t rule out making a run for Congress.

“There was a point last year when I was working for Bernie Sanders where I thought, ‘Huh, maybe I’ll run for Congress in a couple years,’” the actress told The New York Times in an interview. “And you know what? I’m not going to rule it out. Who knows? Life is big, and I’m young.”

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson