Certain images will forever be linked to Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation hearings. There\u2019s Christine Blasey Ford with her hand raised and eyes closed, swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about her alleged sexual assault in high school. Then there\u2019s Supreme Court nominee (now justice) Brett Kavanaugh, red faced, teeth gritted, sniveling as he aggressively denies the allegations. And then, wait, is that Alyssa Milano? With a clipboard? What is she doing there?<\/p>\n
At least that\u2019s the question many were asking when images of Milano, front and center at the hearings, went viral. Twitter had a field day meme-ing the Charmed actress as either a real-life good witch or bad witch, depending on whose side you were on. Saturday Night Live seized upon Milano\u2019s attendance as the running gag of its opening sketch that weekend. Her presence sparked confusion\u2014and levity\u2014but within the context of American politics of the past two years, it wasn\u2019t unusual. And in a way, Milano\u2019s familiar, frustrated face in the crowd served as a sort of communal exasperation, expressing what so many were thinking (and what Ford\u2019s face could not), namely: \u201cCan you believe this shit?\u201d<\/p>\n
But then again, to a particular subset of the population, Milano is known more for her activism than for playing Phoebe on Charmed. Forget who\u2014anyone born after 2000 is probably asking what even is Who\u2019s the Boss? After all, three days after attending the Kavanaugh hearings at the invitation of Senator Dianne Feinstein, Milano was in Parkland, Florida, \u201cto be with the families of the kids who lost their lives and the youth activists\u201d at the Actions for Change Food & Music Festival. Say what you will about celebrity activism\u2014that it oversimplifies the issues, that it\u2019s a spotlight grab disguised as \u201cawareness-building\u201d\u2014Milano walks the walk.
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The morning after the 2016 presidential election, Milano was on set, filming Netflix\u2019s Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later with series co-creator David Wain. \u201cThe atmosphere was like a funeral,\u201d Wain recalls. \u201cEveryone that day was inspired to do more, work harder, take action, but she\u2019s the one who really did it. Like, every single day.\u201d In fact, she\u2019s been at it since her teen-idol days. At 15, Milano met Ryan White, a fellow teenager from Indiana who had contracted HIV\/AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion for hemophilia. When White returned to school after his diagnosis, he was shunned by many in his community and eventually banned because of a misperception that the virus could be transmitted through kissing or other bodily contact. The case went to court, and it was ruled that the school acted illegally. On the day he returned, half the students stayed home. The case became a cause ce\u0301le\u0300bre for raising AIDS awareness, and when White was invited to appear on The Phil Donahue Show to share his story, he asked Milano, his teenage crush, to join him. \u201c[He asked me] to kiss him, to show that HIV\/AIDS was not contracted through casual contact,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd so, in the height of my teenage\u2014whatever that was\u2014I said yes and went on TV and kissed a little boy with HIV\/AIDS, and we sort of shifted the narrative in that moment. I realized what being a celebrity and having a platform could mean, and the impact it could have on people\u2019s lives.\u201d She\u2019s been politically active ever since, riding through swing districts with a bullhorn in the back of a pickup truck, rallying on college campuses, and driving people to the polls. \u201cBasically the same thing that I do now, just minus the social media, so no one really heard about it,\u201d she says. But right now, she adds, \u201cdemocracy is a full-contact sport, and the only way for it to work is to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
I REMEMBER WATCHING [THE HEARINGS] AND THINKING, \u2018OH MY GOD, PEOPLE ARE MONSTERS TO WOMEN.\u2019 AND THAT WAS AN AWAKENING FOR ME, OF REALIZING THE SYSTEMIC GROSSNESS OF EVERYTHING. WORK IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SAFE PLACE.
\nAt this actual moment, however, Milano is home, relaxing in a pair of cozy black sweats and no makeup. The first thing you see when you drive onto her estate, which is situated in a secluded canyon, just west of Los Angeles, is the stable and a group of horses casually chilling outside in the front yard. There are other residents, too, she says: \u201cHorses, chickens, bunnies, and kids; I have two kids.\u201d Her seven-year-old son, Milo, greets me at the front door on his way to baseball practice. When I ask if she likes L.A., she says, \u201cI do! I love it! Where else could you live on five acres with horses and be so close to a city?\u201d She\u2019s been in this house for about 20 years but notes that she and her husband, talent agent David Bugliari, recently had it remodeled. \u201cI literally feel my blood pressure drop when I get off the freeway out here,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew I wanted to live in a place that was very different from the industry that I was in.\u201d My blood pressure also drops while I\u2019m talking with Milano. She is warm and attentive, and feels faintly like a family member in the way actors who grew up on TV always seem to.<\/p>\n
Milano\u2019s parents were also politically active, and they let her know early on that, as a girl, she might have to fight a little harder to get what she wanted. \u201cI think the first time I was really aware of what that meant in day-to-day life was the Anita Hill testimony,\u201d she says. Milano was 18 when Hill testified at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. \u201cAnd I had already been sexually assaulted at that point, but I never made the connection. I remember watching [the hearings] and thinking, \u2018Oh my God, people are monsters to women.\u2019 And that was an awakening for me, of realizing the systemic grossness of everything. Work is supposed to be a safe place.\u201d Milano\u2019s two assaults occurred in her teens. \u201cThe first time, I was 15, and the second time, 19. It was horrible. And I didn\u2019t report it,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t tell anybody until I had my first child. People don\u2019t talk about this at all, but my first childbirth was so invasive\u2014 they\u2019re trying to get the baby out of your vagina, and I was triggered by that experience back to my assault, from some dark place where I had stored that trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019M NOT WORRIED ABOUT MY SON. IT\u2019S NOT A HARD TIME FOR MEN RIGHT NOW. IT\u2019S A HARD TIME FOR ABUSERS AND PREDATORS. IT\u2019S A HARD TIME FOR MEN WHO ABUSE AND PREY ON WOMEN. THEY SHOULD BE FREAKING OUT.
\nWhen Who\u2019s the Boss? ended, Milano\u2019s focus shifted. \u201cThere was some exploration of, \u2018What do I want to be when I grow up?\u2019 \u201d she says, as well as some pressure to sex up her image in order to break out of \u201cchild star\u201d status. \u201cIt was such a different time, and I had to make that choice.\u201d In the end, she chose to continue acting, partly due to the platform it afforded her activism.<\/p>\n
This year, she\u2019s focused her efforts on gun violence and sexual assault. The latter was boosted in late 2017, when her tweet asking followers to reply \u201cMe too\u201d if they\u2019d been sexually harassed or assaulted went viral. At the time, the headlines were about abuses of power in Hollywood, but she wanted to make it clear that it happened in all types of workplaces. \u201cWe all had our stories, and we could all identify with what was happening, but my initial reaction was for it not to be about me or the industry. So I immediately went to a place of, How do we use this to shine a light on the misogyny and systemic rape culture that we have in this country?\u201d<\/p>\n
When she sent the \u201cMe too\u201d tweet, Milano was in the middle of shooting the beauty pageant black comedy Insatiablefor Netflix. \u201cIt could not have been a worse time to unpack all that,\u201d she says. \u201cI had to work. I had to have big hair and fake nails and do a Southern accent. It was hard. But unpacking the trauma, and finding solace in other women, I\u2019ve never felt better as far as my anxiety goes. There\u2019s power in that. And if we can harness that collective pain that we all feel and turn it into a collective power, then we\u2019re going to be able to beat this. We\u2019re going to be able to make it better for my daughter\u2019s generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is confident that despite recent setbacks, things are changing for the better. \u201cWhen you really break down how far we\u2019ve come in the last year, I think the patriarchy is freaking out, and they\u2019re shifting this narrative to the men being victims. Where people are like, \u2018Yeah, it really is a hard time for men right now. Shouldn\u2019t you be thinking about your son?,\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m not worried about my son. It\u2019s not a hard time for men right now. It\u2019s a hard time for abusers and predators. It\u2019s a hard time for men who abuse and prey on women. They should be freaking out. They should have been freaking out a long time ago.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Equal Rights Amendment
\nGETTY IMAGESTOM WILLIAMS
\nMilano brings up a time when her son asked why her daughter got to pick the book to read that night. \u201cHe said, \u2018Why? I\u2019m the one who can read.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Yeah, I understand that, but Bella is going to pick the book tonight because what she wants matters just as much as what you want.\u2019 It\u2019s such a blessing to be able to teach them both by saying that out loud in those little moments. I hope it sticks with them.\u201d Misogyny is endemic in our culture, Milano says, because the system was built by and for misogynists who tell women they have to be \u201cone of the guys\u201d and identify with locker-room talk and behavior. \u201cI think that was all by design.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the day of the confirmation, Milano wanted to feel helpful, so she phone-banked for Katie Hill, a candidate for Congress in California\u2019s twenty-fifth district. Soon she\u2019ll be back at work, shooting the second season of Insatiable. At a recent event, she even hinted that she might run for office herself in 10 years. And as dusk falls in the canyon, it\u2019s hard not to feel at least a little burst of optimism about Milano\u2019s dream of a better world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Galerij Links: http\/\/: 2018: Camilla Armburst (Elle) Certain images will forever be linked to Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation hearings. There\u2019s Christine Blasey Ford with her hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alyssa-milano","category-fotoshoots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5919,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/5919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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