Rose McGowan‘s public presence since the outbreak of the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal has been both a beacon of inspiration and a source of controversy. She and others stand at odds with the #MeToo movement, calling it a public relations stunt in her recent ABC interview.
McGowan has been making numerous promotional appearances lately in support of her new book, Brave, but her latest stop seems to be her last due to a fiery encounter with a member of the audience. According to Deadline, a member of the audience began to shout during a section of the book event at a Barnes & Noble in New York. The questions involved McGowan’s past comments about transgender people, leading to a showdown:
“I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul,” the attendee said according to the Independent. “Trans women are dying and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks [away]. I have been followed home –,” the woman said before McGowan interrupted.
The audience member went on, “You do nothing for them. Trans women are in men’s prisons. And what have you done for them?” at which point the two began yelling at each other.
Deadline also added that McGowan continued shouting as the person who asked the question was escorted out by security and shouting, “Get off my back. What have you done? I know what I’ve done, Goddammit”:
”Trans women are women and what I’ve been trying to say is that it’s the same. The stats are not that dissimilar. When you break it down, it is a much smaller population. There’s not a network here devoted to your f****** death. There’s not advertisers advertising tampons with a camera lovingly going up a girl’s body as she’s being lovingly raped and strangled. Piss off. And until you can collect that f****** check, back up. My name is Rose McGowan and I am obviously f****** brave.”
McGowan then took to Twitter to accuse the attendee of being a “paid actor” and announcing that she was canceling her scheduled public appearances. She also accused the publicists, agents, managers, and other people in the audience of “weakness” from complicity for neglecting to do anything as the incident unfolded.
https://twitter.com/rosemcgowan/status/959504910902595585
And everyone from my publicists, t assistants, managers and every person sitting in their chairs frozen by their weakness, a weakness called COMPLICITY. The truth is you all failed me. Again. And again. And again.
— Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) February 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/rosemcgowan/status/959523939918770176