Oprah receiving the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the 75th Golden Globes; Photo credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC
Happy New Year! I hope you had some time to rest and refresh with your loved ones before starting back up again in 2018. I wanted to write today with a few things Reid Miller will be focusing on in the coming year, but I am going to delay this one week to talk about a seemingly unlikely subject matter: the Golden Globes. I tuned into the Golden Globes because I had read about the #TimesUp movement Laura Dern is involved with, employing fashion for the night of the Golden Globes to make a statement about women’s power in Hollywood and elsewhere. Naturally, I had to see this and was so fascinated by the pre-show display of black that I watched the whole thing (something I have not done since high school).
Change was radically displayed at the Golden Globes. When I tune in for the fashion, I did not expect the solidarity and power among the women and male allies in the room Sundayevening. Nearly every woman in attendance wore black, many also chose to forgo the usual display of cleavage or legs, deciding instead to choose what they wanted to say with their fashion choice, rather than leading with an image of sexy above all other aspects of what they bring to the table. I loved to see what each artist chose, when she was not pushed to conform to solely “sexy” as the measuring stick of her worth. The diversity of choice was beautiful. The interpretation of femininity and power was also beautiful.
Christina Hendricks at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo credit: Jordan Strauss/AP
Isabelle Huppert at the 75th annual Golden Globe Award. Photo credit: Jordan Strauss/AP
Though it may seem minor in the age of climate change, severe social inequality and an economy in transition, for me, this was a dream come true. Women owning their look. Taking it back. On their terms. Wearing outfits that say, “I am an artist first and foremost. A leader. My physical features are secondary and not the sum total of what I bring to the table.”
Claire Foy at the 75th Golden Globes. Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/NBC
Tracee Ellis Ross. Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/NBC
And the speeches! Oprah! Time’s Up! Take a moment to watch it here if you have not already. I already love this woman. I often ask myself WWOD (what would Oprah do) when facing tough problems – and to see her charge forward and use the podium to assert her power on behalf of marginalized women everywhere brought me to tears.
That’s not all. In the audience were a whole room of women, who have been cramped into a space where extreme ideals of beauty and youth distort whose art is shared and whose art is excluded. They were joined together, moved by the power of Oprah’s words, the strength displayed by Meher Tatna, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association president, Barbara Streisand – the only woman EVER to get the director award at the Golden Globes 35 yrs ago, Natalie Portman’s crack about the “All male nominees [for best director]” to name a few. These displays of power, uniting women in that room and in their living rooms throughout the world, gave me a bottomless hope for all the tough work we have to accomplish over the coming years to claim our place at the table and build a world that has a future we want to live in.
The message is clear – women will not be treated like second-class citizens or 2nd rate artists, leaders, businesspersons, entrepreneurs, partners, designers, innovators, etc. Where this persists, it will be called out. The truth will be splayed open for all to see, examine and address. This will require dedication and patience, but we will persist. Thank goodness.
Change is here. We are waking up. Now let’s get back to work.