On January 8, 2017, actress Meryl Streep accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. In her speech, Streep took the opportunity to criticize Donald Trump and calling out his actions, including the time he mocked a disabled reporter in 2015. From there, she expressed that this issue with Mr. Trump's behavior was that it "kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose." Amidst the people praising the brilliance of that speech, Trump (like the rational man that he is) took to Twitter and erupted into a tirade about how Meryl Streep was overrated. Along with that, the debate over whether or not celebrities should get involved with social and political issues. Many people who roll their eyes when this happens often reference the "Hollywood bubble" and how today's celebrities are detached from most people. and how they lived their lives. But on the contrary, whenever celebrities do pay attention, they take action and provide the attention that these issues deserve.
It goes without saying that most celebrities today didn't always start out where they are today. Even Meryl Streep mentions how many of the celebrities that attended the Golden Globes came from all different walks of life. And that Hollywood was just a "bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids in Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?" For many in the "Hollywood bubble," they lived the same way as most other people living in America.
In Roxane Gay's essay "Peculiar Benefits," Gay regards to privilege when "you need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about" (Gay). While many Hollywood celebrities seem to live atop their ivory towers that people place them in, many have brought attention to important contemporary issues: Kristen Bell has shown support for the California-based charity PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), Neil Patrick Harris has been a vocal advocate for LGBT rights, and Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda has worked with senators on a bill to handle the Puerto Rico Debt Crisis.
