Rose McGowan Exposes Hollywoodâs Hypocrisy in the Riveting âCitizen Roseâ
Rose McGowan
At one point during the two-hour premiere of Citizen Rose  her new E! docuseries   Rose McGowan  describes  her  life as âtrauma on top of trauma on top of trauma.â The series  which delves deep into McGowanâs upbringing in a cult and  her  Hollywood sex symbol status  as well as  her  alleged sexual assault and its aftermath  is far more substantial and devastating than standard E! programming.
Citizen Rose takes on a portion of one of the biggest news stories of 2017: the outing of Harvey Weinstein as an alleged serial rapist and sexual abuser. Weinstein  whose name and face is obscured in McGowanâs series  is one of the many characters on Citizen Rose who has become a household name. And while the series takes pains not to amplify Weinsteinâs infamy  it gives over its platforms to some of the heroes of the Weinstein saga. Ronan Farrow  the journalist who helped expose Weinstein with his New Yorker reporting  appears on Citizen Rose to thank  McGowan  for coming forward. Itâs one of the many moments in the series that successfully brings audiences behind the scenes of crucial moments in the #MeToo timeline. We learn that  McGowan  was one of the first women to talk to Farrow  as  he  recalls  âWhen I first talked to youâ¦at the end of that interview  when I said  are there others  and you said  âI know there are others â I then went out and started calling women.â
Farrow goes on to compare Weinsteinâs decades of alleged abuse and network of spies to a detective novel  and  McGowan  explains the intense loneliness of being called crazy and paranoid for years because nobody believed that the producer was actively attempting to intimidate and silence her. After âtwenty years  with everyone saying âyouâre not seeing what youâre seeing ââ Farrowâs reporting finally  publicly confirmed what she had been privately alleging in the years since she was assaulted. She concludes  âIâm not paranoid  itâs reality.â
For  McGowan   doubts about how her narrative is being consumed are clearly secondary to the joy of being heard after decades of deafening silence. If thereâs one defining emotion in Citizen Roseâa series thatâs really about emotional as they comeâitâs relief. After years and years of being either ignored or misunderstood   McGowan  is finally being validated and encouraged to share  her  truth  as  she  sees it. The resulting two hours of truth-telling is probably more sincere than anything E! has ever aired. Itâs almost as if the network canât come to terms with the fact that they have a truly gripping  meaningful  timely subject on their hands  leading them to resort to unnecessary filler materialâinexplicable interludes of interpretive dancing and bright flashing lights.
Still  when  McGowan  speaks  itâs well worth the wait. While  she  insists that  she  has been attempting to tell  her  story for years  itâs only in recent months that  McGowan  has become legible. Before   she  was alternatively seen as a sex symbol or a loose cannon; narratives that  McGowan  convincingly argues were forced upon  her . Citizen Rose is as much about the âopen secretâ of Harvey Weinsteinâs serial sexual abuse as it is about the way that women in Hollywood are deliberately seen but not heard.
Early on in the episode  we go through the timeline of McGowanâs assault.  She  explains that  âWhen it happened to me I was in the middle of my second movie for him. I had a 10 a.m. meeting in the restaurant. The maÃ®tre dâ said heâs not ready yet  they want you to go up to his officeâ¦I get up there  two male assistants come outâ¦I had an MTV crew following me that morning  it was supposed to be  Rose McGowan   a day in the life. I turn to the cameras right when I was about to go into the hotel  and I say  âI think my life is finally getting easier.ââ
In a larger conversation about sexual-assault survivors  itâs important to point out that  McGowan   a famous white actress  comes from a place of immense privilege. Still  the history that she recalls is a painful one  from a childhood spent in the Children of God cult to what she calls âthe cult of Hollywood.â McGowan went from being a young star with all of the opportunities in the world to an assault survivor working on a movie for her alleged rapist. Over decades  just trying to do her job  she was consistently forced to interact with Weinstein  and made to remember that he was the one in power. McGowan describes turning on the TV âto see Gwyneth Paltrow giving him humanitarian awards â or going to the movies and seeing his name. âI saw him all the time â she breaks down to her mom in one scene. âI didnât get to be me for 17 yearsâ¦youâre literally trapped in the tiniest town in the world.â
At one point during the two-hour premiere of Citizen Rose  her new E! docuseries    [TGT] describes   [TGT]   life as âtrauma on top of trauma on top of trauma.â The series  which delves deep into McGowanâs upbringing in a cult and  her  Hollywood sex symbol status  as well as  her  alleged sexual assault and its aftermath  is far more substantial and devastating than standard E! programming.
Citizen Rose takes on a portion of one of the biggest news stories of 2017: the outing of Harvey Weinstein as an alleged serial rapist and sexual abuser. Weinstein  whose name and face is obscured in McGowanâs series  is one of the many characters on Citizen Rose who has become a household name. And while the series takes pains not to amplify Weinsteinâs infamy  it gives over its platforms to some of the heroes of the Weinstein saga. Ronan Farrow  the journalist who helped expose Weinstein with his New Yorker reporting  appears on Citizen Rose to thank  McGowan  for coming forward. Itâs one of the many moments in the series that successfully brings audiences behind the scenes of crucial moments in the #MeToo timeline. We learn that  McGowan  was one of the first women to talk to Farrow  as  he  recalls  âWhen I first talked to youâ¦at the end of that interview  when I said  are there others  and you said  âI know there are others â I then went out and started calling women.â
Farrow goes on to compare Weinsteinâs decades of alleged abuse and network of spies to a detective novel  and  McGowan  explains the intense loneliness of being called crazy and paranoid for years because nobody believed that the producer was actively attempting to intimidate and silence her. After âtwenty years  with everyone saying âyouâre not seeing what youâre seeing ââ Farrowâs reporting finally  publicly confirmed what she had been privately alleging in the years since she was assaulted. She concludes  âIâm not paranoid  itâs reality.â
For  McGowan   doubts about how her narrative is being consumed are clearly secondary to the joy of being heard after decades of deafening silence. If thereâs one defining emotion in Citizen Roseâa series thatâs really about emotional as they comeâitâs relief. After years and years of being either ignored or misunderstood   McGowan  is finally being validated and encouraged to share  her  truth  as  she  sees it. The resulting two hours of truth-telling is probably more sincere than anything E! has ever aired. Itâs almost as if the network canât come to terms with the fact that they have a truly gripping  meaningful  timely subject on their hands  leading them to resort to unnecessary filler materialâinexplicable interludes of interpretive dancing and bright flashing lights.
Still  when  McGowan  speaks  itâs well worth the wait. While  she  insists that  she  has been attempting to tell  her  story for years  itâs only in recent months that  McGowan  has become legible. Before   she  was alternatively seen as a sex symbol or a loose cannon; narratives that  McGowan  convincingly argues were forced upon  her . Citizen Rose is as much about the âopen secretâ of Harvey Weinsteinâs serial sexual abuse as it is about the way that women in Hollywood are deliberately seen but not heard.
Early on in the episode  we go through the timeline of McGowanâs assault.  She  explains that  âWhen it happened to me I was in the middle of my second movie for him. I had a 10 a.m. meeting in the restaurant. The maÃ®tre dâ said heâs not ready yet  they want you to go up to his officeâ¦I get up there  two male assistants come outâ¦I had an MTV crew following me that morning  it was supposed to be  Rose McGowan   a day in the life. I turn to the cameras right when I was about to go into the hotel  and I say  âI think my life is finally getting easier.ââ
In a larger conversation about sexual-assault survivors  itâs important to point out that  McGowan   a famous white actress  comes from a place of immense privilege. Still  the history that she recalls is a painful one  from a childhood spent in the Children of God cult to what she calls âthe cult of Hollywood.â McGowan went from being a young star with all of the opportunities in the world to an assault survivor working on a movie for her alleged rapist. Over decades  just trying to do her job  she was consistently forced to interact with Weinstein  and made to remember that he was the one in power. McGowan describes turning on the TV âto see Gwyneth Paltrow giving him humanitarian awards â or going to the movies and seeing his name. âI saw him all the time â she breaks down to her mom in one scene. âI didnât get to be me for 17 yearsâ¦youâre literally trapped in the tiniest town in the world.â