Faced with a draconian new restriction on abortion rights in Texas (home to nearly 30 million people, four million more than Australia), most reasonable people are wondering, “what the hell do we do now?” That includes Hollywood, and judging by the voices so far, women’s bodily autonomy is an issue that could prompt action.
Actress and advocate Patricia Arquette was one of the first out of the gate to suggest a Hollywood boycott. “We will not stop until women have full equal rights in every state in America. We will boycott you. We will out organize you. We will strike you,” she wrote.
Soon after, her sister Rosanna Arquette put her money where her mouth was.
Author Megan Kelly Hall suggested that all entertainers should cancel their Texas dates.
Such a move is not entirely out of the question. For the time being, abortion access is severely curbed for women in Texas, barring action like a new congressional bill. But nationwide, the future of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade remains under threat. And Republicans in other states, including Florida, are looking to make similar moves to the Lone Star State, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s failure to protect the rights of women there.
In 2019, when women’s abortion rights were threatened in Georgia, forces in Hollywood put up a fight. Bob Iger, who was CEO of the Walt Disney Company at the time, said he would move his operations (which includes much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) out of the state in solidarity with his employees, and Netflix said they would “rethink its investment.” Kristen Wiig didn’t only make threats; she changed locations on Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar. (Thanks to tax credits initiated in 2008, Atlanta has become a major hub for film and television production, even dubbed “The Hollywood of the South!”). But Texas presents an even more formidable challenge, given that the Supreme Court failed to block the law, possibly foreshadowing what’s to come for women in red states who don’t have the means to travel to exercise their reproductive rights.
As of Saturday, social media had no shortage of celebrities piping mad about what happened in Texas (see the Twitter feeds of Bradley Whitford, Barbra Streisand, George Takei, among many others). But the idea of a Texas-wide boycott does not yet appear to be reaching anything close to a consensus.
Jack Antonoff announced he’d still bring his act to Texas, but proceeds from those shows will go to groups that support abortion rights until the laws are repealed.
Actor and documentary filmmaker Alex Winter also seemed less keen on a boycott but suggested ways to help people living in Texas.
Similarly, actress and advocate Alyssa Milano, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times said, “I don’t know if a Hollywood boycott would do much directly. But a Hollywood-driven boycott of companies which fund the campaigns of [Gov.] Greg Abbott and others like him might hurt more.” She added that a boycott could “hurt the people who are most affected by these new laws” and instead hoped to get “the entertainment industry united and loud in pushing for immediate federal reform and relief will protect women everywhere in America.”
Harking back to classical antiquity, Bette Midler fired off a tweet that gained a lot of traction, offering a spin on Lysistrata. At this point, it can’t hurt.
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