On the night of Jan. 8, veteran actress Meryl Streep took the stage at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards to accept the Cecile B. DeMille Award, an accolade she earned for her achievements in entertainment. During her acceptance speech, Streep used her platform to indirectly denounce President-Elect Donald J. Trump. She commenced her speech with typical thanks. However, the tone of the speech dramatically changed when she described the nature of the world of fine arts. She explained, “an actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like.” She continued her speech by mentioning a list of Trump’s many controversies; including his alleged mocking of a disabled journalist, his animosity toward minorities and immigrants and what Streep called his, “instinct to humiliate.” Streep concluded her speech by encouraging the press to stand tall against Trump’s attacks on journalism and wrapped up with the phrase, “take your broken heart, make it into art,” a quote from the late Carrie Fischer.
Shortly after her address, Streep’s comments went viral. Her name trended on twitter and controversy soon followed. Intense dispute online and in the media ensued the next day as viewers debated about various components of Streep’s speech, whether the Golden Globes was an appropriate opportunity to address Trump, and whether celebrities should be actively outspoken about politics in general. President-Elect Trump expectantly fired back at Streep in a series of tweets early the next morning saying, “Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big.”
The fact of the matter is that this scenario is going to be repeated for the entirety of Trump’s presidency unless he drastically changes his political positions and public demeanor. It will feel exactly like a broken record; an artist, musician, performer or media personality will condemn Trump’s words or actions using their mediums and Trump will subsequently berate them and their respective mediums on his favorite micro-blogging platform using his favorite hackneyed adjective. The discussion on whether artists, musician and actors should keep their two cents out of politics is nothing new and is not up for debate either. Celebrities are people and have the right to discuss politics just as we do. They just have a much wider audience that they have the ability to reach.
Additionally, Streep’s speech was not intended to sway people’s opinions. The time for that has come and gone. Streep’s speech was intended to be rallying cry for a resistance to Trump’s proposed agenda which includes pursuing Russia as an ally (which we now know was under direct order from Vladimir Putin to meddle in the 2016 election), pulling funding from Planned Parenthood, and repealing the Affordable Care Act that would leave millions without health insurance. What’s done is done regarding the electoral process and Streep knows this. The popular votes have been counted (In spite of their favor for Hillary Clinton), the intelligence briefings have been delivered and the electorate has made it clear that Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the United States despite his crude behavior and experiential shortcomings.
Amidst the public disdain for the President-Elect, it is the artist’s (and I use the term artist as a broad term encompassing creators from various mediums) job to speak out against any agenda of bigotry no matter its partisanship. Times of sociopolitical discourse in American history have led to some of the best art ever produced simply by drawing from the sheer passion for progress and justice held by artists. It’s led to Billie Holiday’s racially charged “Strange Fruit,” Marvin Gaye’s, plea for peace in “What’s Going On?” and Bruce Springsteen’s opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam in “Born in the U.S.A.” It’s the same outrage that has fueled influential art pieces, films and written works that have aided in shaping American culture and history.
Meryl Streep was absolutely in her own right to condemn Trump and should be applauded for her courage to speak out. To those that actively advocate for the silencing of celebrities in their realm of work: take a look at art throughout history. Artists speaking out against tyrannical forces of bigotry and oppression is what this nation was built on. Historically speaking, to stand on the opposite side of the artist is to stand on the wrong side of history.
