The Time’s Up campaign has made an increasingly large name for itself in the past week, particularly following the golden globe when almost all of the women celebrities at the event wore black to show support for the campaign.

For those who do not know, Time’s Up is a movement against sexual harassment. It was founded in 2018 following the Weinstein effect and #MeToo.

Many people would automatically assume that I, a woman, am in support of the Time’s Up movement by default.

However, that is very much not true.

As a disclaimer, I am very against sexual harassment. Obviously.

There is no doubt that sexual harassment is wrong and inexcusable. It is a very prevalent and obvious issue that everyone knows about but no one can do much about. My issues stem from the Time’s Up campaign, its objectives, and the work it does.

The Time’s Up campaign is a movement with the purpose to “fight sexual harassment.”

Many have heard that, but few question what this vague descriptor actually means. How do you fight an intangible societal issue that has been deeply rooted in society for as long as time can remember? Time’s Up is meant for the prevention of sexual harassment and to help women take legal action in the aftermath of sexual harassment.

However, Time’s Up only gives services for the latter part –– helping women take legal action.

Their “prevention” plan is to write facts on their website and points of advisory to try to help women avoid sexual harassment. While this may have been created with an honorable cause in mind, the advice is unlikely to help. For example, here are the first five advice points listed on Time’s Up’s website:

1. Don’t be part of the problem. For starters, don’t harass anyone.

2. If a person who has been harassed tells you about it, believe them. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to talk about these things.

3. If you know someone who has been harassed, connect them to resources who can help, such as the ones found here.

4. If you are a witness or bystander and see a harassing situation, you can help the person being harassed.

You could actually intervene. You could confront the harasser. You could also help the person get out of the harassing situation. If you cannot do any of these things, you can still support the harassed person by corroborating and confirming the account of what happened.

5. You can support those affected by sexual harassment by donating to the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund.

All of the above points state the obvious. They are points that we have been told all our lives by parents, teachers, peers, society, and so on. Everyone knows “don’t harass anyone” and “you could confront the harasser.”

The issue is that people may know the moral thing to do, but choose not to do it.

Everyone knows sexual harassment is morally wrong. Wearing black and repeating “time’s up” over and over isn’t going to bring about a dramatic character change in those who commit the sexual harassment.

Moreover, from the viewpoint of people who have faced sexual harassment, no amount of repeating “time’s up” would have prevented it from happening. The flaw is with the people and society - not with women not knowing what to do about it.

Time’s Up’s website is full of statistics of women being sexually harassed, facing inequalities in the workforce, men not understanding the inequality and such. However, taking such an aggressive stance of big numbers on a bright red background isn’t going to make any man change his mind. If anything, the aggression puts people on the defense.

People may say they support the movement and such, but it won’t bring a character change. This was shown when certain men were seen donning the Time’s Up pin at the Golden Globes and afterward accused of sexual harassment from their past.

Part of the reason why this prevention plan will not change someone’s character is that many men do not realize they are doing anything wrong. For example, Aziz Ansari claimed he didn’t know he was making a woman uncomfortable.

He had done nothing illegal and the woman did not blatantly tell him to stop. In this situation, Time’s Up wouldn’t have been able to help the woman because (1) it wasn’t prevented and (2) he did nothing illegal so no legal action can be taken. Thus when nothing is legally wrong in sexual harassment, Time’s Up can’t do anything.

With Time’s Up being of minimal help with the prevention of sexual harassment, their services are basically only helping those who were affected by sexual harassment and are able to take legal action.

The fact that Time’s Up deals far more with the aftermath of sexual harassment than the prevention presents a critical issue. If the harassment is not being prevented, then people will continue to be in the aftermath.

The focus should be on prevention, not on dealing with it after it happens.

Many celebrities have pledged their salary, such as Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, Selena Gomez because of their role in a Woody Allen movie after accusations that Allen sexually assaulted his adopted daughter.

Their donations are very honorable, but the honor and supporters they received may have been worth more than the actual charity can do.

Time’s Up isn’t about gay rights or animal rights or anything of the sort.

It is much more deeply rooted, happening universally in every country and every society for as far as time can go back. Throwing money at it now doesn’t help.

If anything, giving people the option to donate money gives them an avenue to feel as if they were helping to alleviate a problem when in reality, nothing is happening. It’s comparable to changing your Facebook picture frame temporarily to support those affected by a natural disaster instead of doing something practical to help rebuild the country.

I won’t try to propose a solution to the issue of sexual harassment because, to be honest, I think that if a solution exists it would either require (1) a complete societal change built over centuries or (2) a system of very large consequences built to discourage all men from even thinking about making a sexual move without a clear “yes.”

Both solutions are extreme and unreasonable at this time. Time’s Up was created with good intentions, but don’t put your money where your mouth is in this situation.