After all the post-mortems are finished, last night’s Golden Globes ceremony will be remembered as the night that the women in Hollywood stood up to the powers that be and said Time’s Up. The black outfits — which were everywhere — were a sight to behold on the red carpet. The unity of the women in Hollywood was the theme on the carpet and in the auditorium.
I remember a generation ago when I watched the women who created the Hollywood Women’s Political Caucus work together to raise money for pro-choice female candidates. They were the political women in Hollywood at that moment. Now, a new diverse generation of women are taking up the mantle and pushing Hollywood to change.
For all the people saying that dresses are not enough: last night was about way more than dresses. Last night the women of Hollywood put the men on notice, and demanded that they play the game differently.
I don’t think it’s a far-fetched statement to say that all of these women have been in meetings or auditions where something inappropriate has been said, or something inappropriate happened. The outcry since the reckoning began has become immense. Historically, the men in power in Hollywood have banked on the fact that women were pitted against each other for roles, and also banked on their silence to get the parts. What I saw last night, and have felt for some time, is that public silence is no longer the status quo.
There were moments large and small during the event that brought the message home that the world is now different: Nicole Kidman thanking her mom for being a feminist activist all her life, the return of Amy Sherman-Palladino — who was pushed out of “Gilmore Girls,” the show she created — and Elisabeth Moss saying that women “no longer live in the blank white spaces at the edge of print” and “the gaps between the stories,” and instead “are the stories in print and we are writing the stories ourselves.”
Nothing could top Oprah’s speech, which was more powerful and uniting than anything our current president has ever said — so much so that it immediately spawned an outpouring of support for Oprah 2020 and led NBC (the network!) to tweet about her being our president (it’s since been deleted). She recalled what it was like seeing Sidney Poitier win his Oscar for “Lilies of the Field” and what that moment meant to her, and she talked about what it meant to all the little girls seeing the first black woman win the Cecil B. DeMille Award. As all inspiring leaders do, Oprah took her moment and made it much bigger than herself — she made it a call to action.
She received a well-deserved standing ovation for her rousing speech, in which she emphasized that she wanted “all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”
It was a huge moment, and even watching from home you could tell that the energy in the auditorium was electric. And then Natalie Portman got up to announce the best director award with Ron Howard and just dropped in the word “male” before nominees. That moment was so subversive. It was totally unexpected — as Ron Howard’s reaction showed. The awkwardness that was pinging around in the room was palpable. That moment is a moment indicative of what should be happening all across Hollywood and other workplaces. This reckoning is not going to be easy. There are going to be many uncomfortable moments, and that moment was a very public and visible one and it worked so well because it caught people by surprise. People are going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. This is how we will see change.
But while we did see female power on display front and center yesterday, the lack of recognition from the men was extremely disappointing. It showed that there is still so much work to do, and that many of the men still don’t get it. From the men on the red carpet not talking about #metoo or #timesup, to the still lame questions asked by the men on the carpet to men and women (except for Al Roker), to the men who got up to get awards like James Franco, David E. Kelley, and Sam Rockwell who seemed oblivious to what was happening around them and let their egos lead their mouths. They lost opportunities to be allies to the women and that will not be forgotten.
I will remember last night for watching the women like Tracee Ellis Ross put her hand up in a fist, Michelle Williams deftly turning her carpet time over to #MeToo activist Tarana Burke, Meryl Streep holding hands with Ai-Jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Debra Messing trolling E! while being interviewed on E!, Amber Tamblyn’s NY Times Op-Ed, all of the winning series and films being women-centric, and Barbra Streisand calling out the fact that a woman hasn’t won for best director since she did in 1984 — and she’s the only one who has ever won, for the record. “Lady Bird” won best Musical or Comedy and its star, Saoirse Ronan, won Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. But the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, wasn’t even nominated for Best Director. I’ll remember that, too.
My overall feeling about last night? The women led. Now the men need to follow.
