Women should boycott the Golden Globes rather than line up behind mediocre popcorn movies by men

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Last January, three short months after the publication of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into allegations of rape and sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, women in Hollywood descended, like a murder of crows, on the Golden Globes red carpet, dressed entirely in black.

For as long as awards shows have existed, women have stepped, posed and repeated in front of walls of paparazzi wearing bespoke couture – their gowns embodying the American dream of the glitz and glamour of La La Land. All while an expanding audience of us laypeople watched in our civvies. It was a moment that will go down in Hollywood history. But did it make a blind bit of difference?

Sadly not. On Monday, as the nominations were announced for the 2020 Golden Globes, women collectively banged their heads against their desks as not a single one was nominated in two of the awards’ most significant categories: Best Director and Best Screenwriter, while male-helmed films took the majority of spaces across several other categories.

It’s nothing new. Since 2000, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has only ever nominated four women for Best Director, among a sea of 100 male nominees. Meanwhile, just five have received Oscar nominations in the Academy’s 91-year history.

The absence of women has previously been “explained” away by virtue of production houses failing to green-light female-penned and directed pictures. But this year, those tired excuses just don’t fly. A roster of brilliant films were snubbed for both categories, including Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, Kassi Lemmons’ Harriet and Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy – the list goes on.

Instead, the HFPA, in their undeniable misogyny, presented a list occupied by the widely divisive and problematic Joker: a mediocre popcorn movie that adopted lazy tropes about mental health as an excuse for male violence.

Martin Scorsese’s three-hour 40-minute The Irishman really takes the biscuit here – it’s been a long time since I saw a film quite so self-congratulatory, while being so tirelessly dull. A load of old Hollywood men reviving their time as the bad boys of the cinematic mob world? Move on, lads. I’m not alone: just 18 per cent of viewers could make it through this film, switching off Netflix before it had even finished.

Hustlers, starring Jennifer Lopez, on the other hand, was a box-office smash – and cost far less to make. But wait, isn’t the lack of female-led films due to women simply not selling as many cinema tickets? Hmm.

Are you bored of hearing these frustrations, year after year? I certainly am. So, let me suggest something else: that women boycott the Golden Globes altogether.

Through years of calling it out (just last year, Natalie Portman announced the “all male nominees” when she stood up to present at the Golden Globes), black-dress protests and initiatives, groups, grants and campaigns, the systemic sexism of the film industry refuses to listen. Last year, men walked away with the Best Drama, Best Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film awards.

Yet despite the outrage at the erasure of women, the Golden Globes has refused to budge, offering tokenistic nominations and outright ignoring worthy contenders.

Yes, women did receive nominations this year – I mean we do make up half of the population after all. It was a brilliant year for women on TV: the small screen, where women are able to take up less space, is happily embracing our contribution. Killing Eve, Fleabag, Big Little Lies, Unbelievable, The Crown and The Morning Show all received nominations. But it isn’t good enough.

This sentiment was perfectly summed up by Har’el, who tweeted: “I was on the inside for the first time this year. These are not our people and they do not represent us. Do not look for justice in the awards system. We are building a new world.”

And that’s exactly what women should do – and male allies alongside them. For what could make more noise and be more radical than actors turning their backs on this stale, male institution that refuses to acknowledge their talent? What paparazzo is interested in a red carpet filled only with men in identical black suits? How long, do you think, would the ceremony last without any female contributors? How many would watch it? We know already that viewing figures for the Globes are dwindling. If women refuse to even turn up, those figures – and advertising revenue – would plummet.

Noah Baumbach’s exceptional Marriage Story has dominated the nomination list, but the HFPA seems to have missed the bitter irony of one of the most poignant parts of the script, when divorce lawyer Nora exposes the sexist double standard of perceptions of men and women as parents.

“We can accept an imperfect dad. We love them for their fallibilities, but people absolutely don’t accept those same failings in mothers,” she says. “You have to be perfect, and [he] can be a f**k-up and it doesn’t matter. You will always be held to a different, higher standard. And its f**ked-up, but that is the way it is.”

That’s not the way it has to stay. The Golden Globes, as it and the rest of the industry know all too well, is a vital precursor to the Oscars. Enough is enough: women in Hollywood are creating worthy, box-office smashing art and they deserve to be recognised. If awards ceremonies won’t nominate women and place them centre stage, women shouldn’t waste their valuable time playing a supporting act.