Last week, Meryl Streep gave an impassioned speech at the Golden Globe Awards while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award. Having been an actress since 1975, she has certainly earned the award. While she did spend the latter half of her speech talking about the privilege and responsibilities of being in the entertainment business, she spent the first half discussing what she believed to be the current state of American society and politics. While I know she is an intelligent woman, her reasoning consisted of stereotypes of conservatives and even hypocrisy.
First, she says that Hollywood belongs to the most vilified segments of America. I believe that could not be further from the truth. Hollywood is one of the most idealized places in America. It brings out ideas of success, fame, and happiness. People can only view it as vilified when people point of the blatant liberal bias in Hollywood. It is something often mentioned in conservative media, but it is hardly vilification. The press isn't being vilified either, it's being called out for it blatant bias as well. CNN is just as biased to the left as Fox News is to the right. And Fox News is the only mainstream media with a conservative standpoint, which is why it avoids most criticism from the right.
Then she talks about where many actors and actresses in the room came from. Her point was to highlight how Hollywood was made up of foreigners, and in her most tone-deaf moment, said if we kicked them all out that we would only be left with football and mixed martial arts, which she called not "the arts." There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, every foreign person she named in that room was in America legally. Conservatives don't have a problem with those who come into our country to live and work here legally. We would not want to throw these people out. We have no reason to. Secondly, while I can't speak for football, but mixed martial arts are certainly an art. They might not be acting or singing but they require movement and timing, similar to dance. Capoeira even is known for its connection to dance and acrobatics. And would it be unfair to say that people can like both football and "the arts?"
As I have said in a previous article, I do not condone everything Donald says or does. I'm sure there is some explanation, but I don't really care to hear it either as I found his mimicry inappropriate as well. However, I took issue with preaching that "disrespect invites disrespect" and "violence incites violence." Yet, she says nothing about Black Lives Matter when they act violently or threaten to. When she talks about the powerful bullying the week, she isn't trying to champion free speech on college campuses, where non-liberal opinions are being suffocated. This is hypocritical on multiple levels, but yet she is applauded for saying these things.
Lastly, she makes a note about the importance of a principled press. I couldn't agree more that we need a press to cover everything and hold people to their actions, but like I said the media has a slant. It should hold everyone accountable for their actions no matter who they are affiliated with, but I think Streep was just talking about Trump, and not Hillary Clinton or Anthony Weiner.
While the rest of her speech talked about the responsibility and privilege of actors and actresses, the previously mentioned points made up the bulk of her acceptance speech. While some found it touching, most could see Streep's ignorance. She resonated only with those that voted blue. She was stuck in her Hollywood bubble and refused to look outside of it. Meryl Streep, you are an amazing actress, but you definitely need to work on your politics before trying to weigh in on it again.
