The Golden Globes occurred on January 7th, 2024 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills California. The award ceremony celebrated its 81st show with its first-ever solo Asian American man to host, Jo Koy. Oppenheimer and Barbie, the top movies of 2023, were up for multiple nominations each, and even Taylor Swift attended for her new Eras Tour Movie.
Both Taylor Swift and the Barbie movie accomplished major strides for women in the entertainment industry. Barbie brought in over 1.4 billion dollars and became the highest-ever grossing film for a live-action movie directed by a female. The Eras Tour Film skyrocketed off the charts and became the highest-grossing concert tour ever. The majority of people felt excited for the Golden Globes because they saw the ceremony as a way to celebrate both Taylor and Barbie for all the records they broke, and the accomplishments achieved by each. Unfortunately, the audience at the awards and home were unimpressed by the jokes Jo Koy made about both.
Koy joked, “Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies,” He paused then continued, “The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet. Or what casting directors call character actor!”
As the camera panned around the room the faces of the audience clearly represented what the rest of the viewers were feeling, a sea of disappointment and discomfort. Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, looked utterly disheartened as the joke seemingly reduced the movie to the very issues it was trying to overcome: how hard it is to be a woman in a man’s world.
The joke blew up in the media criticizing Jo Koy and the Golden Globes for a misogynistic joke that belittled women and was decidedly unfunny. People felt appalled and shocked that Koy portrayed the movie in such a sexist way when the movie’s plot was centered around women overcoming the impossible double standards set for them. The backlash continued with people upset at Golden Globes and Jo Koy for not celebrating the barriers that the movie had broken down. As with every incredible success one accomplishes, criticism will follow and belittlement will knock at your door, but taking the high road through it all will always be the right choice. That is exactly what Greta Gerwig did when asked in an interview what she thought about the joke, “Well, he’s not wrong. She’s the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on. And you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll.” Greta chose to be the bigger person and looked at the glass half-full recognizing that one joke would not derail the message Barbie was trying to accomplish.
The Golden Globes were not as successful as hoped, and unfortunately, Jo Koy did not deliver a monologue that the audience found entertaining. But Barbie walked away with the cinematic and box office achievement award introduced this year, making it the first-ever winner of the award.
