Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday season. It’s great to be back and great to be writing again, although 2015 somehow already feels stressful. The first week of classes was a blur of expensive textbooks and schedule shuffling, but an event this past weekend helped to start my new year off with a bang: the 2015 Golden Globes.
I’ve always been a fan of the Hollywood award shows, and Sunday’s celebrity extravaganza was no exception. I’ve heard many people dismiss the Globes as a mostly unimportant precursor to the Oscars. Although this may be true, this particular Golden Globes was a knockout — in more ways than one. The celebrities of film and television are individuals whom we all hear about whether we want to or not.
But the people sweeping down the red carpet in their stunning outfits are more than well-known faces. They are the cultural spokespeople of our time, showcasing every year what is at the forefront of our country’s social problems, political issues and artistic ventures. Their art form, though it has its faults, is a critique of what our country is thinking about this year, what we are feeling and what we are facing.
This year, the Golden Globes did a wonderful job embracing some of the progressive ideas of entertainment today, and I’m not just talking about the kick-butt power couple of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as announcers — although they were fantastic. Poehler/Fey 2016, everyone.
What I’m talking about are the many diverse and awesome TV series and films that were up for awards this year, like “Pride,” a film about the alliance between an LGBTQ+ support group and a union of Welsh miners participating in a nationwide strike. That film was nominated for Best Comedy or Musical Motion Picture. Actors from shows like “Transparent,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Jane the Virgin” were nominated for awards.
When Joanne Froggatt, who plays Anna from “Downton Abbey,” won Best Supporting Actress in a Series, I was already happy because I’m completely nuts for that show. Froggatt’s acceptance speech gave a voice to the survivors of rape and sexual assault who had written to her in response to her performance as a survivor of sexual assault. Such an acknowledgement of these voices is a step in the right direction for cinema.
But this acknowledgement didn’t end with Froggatt’s speech. The TV show “Transparent” broke new ground by winning the Best TV Series, Musical, or Comedy award. It is the first show to win with an openly transgender woman as the main character. Jill Soloway, the show’s creator, dedicated the award to Leelah Alcorn, a teenage transgender girl whose suicide on Dec. 28 drew national attention. Leelah was one of many transgender people who suffered abuse from her family and community, an awful and sobering reminder for America of the many transgender people who lose their lives as a result of this discrimination and abuse. In her suicide note, Leelah asked people to talk more about the hardships trans people face. Hopefully Soloway’s dedication at the Golden Globes is only the beginning of this dialogue.
Those weren’t the only moving moments of the 2015 Golden Globes. John Legend’s acceptance speech for “Glory,” which won Best Song from the movie “Selma,” was deeply pertinent to the civil rights issues that are, appallingly, still problems in the U.S.
Maggie Gyllenhaal completely took down the patriarchy with an epic acceptance speech for her award of Best Actress for a TV Series in “The Honorable Woman.” She spoke out about the new abundance of roles for “actual women” in television and film, instead of sexualized or minimized stereotypes.
There were things that weren’t so wonderful about the Golden Globes, too, like the way Jeremy Renner was oh-so-casually sexist and how “The Lego Movie” didn’t win Best Animated Picture — but we still have the Oscars for that. Don’t despair.
The Golden Globes blew me away with its openness, recognition and positivity toward current social issues.
Our entertainment industry is finally moving away from its old, crude caricatures of minority groups. Instead, television series and films are recognizing and rewarding the talent of so many amazing movements and individuals. To me, this is great news. It’s a sign that 2015 is going to be an awesome year for social justice and entertainment alike.
Sally Greider is an English and public relations sophomore.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 1/13/2015 under the headline “social progress shown through Golden Globes"]
