Activism on the red carpet

This year's Golden Globes was less about the awards being won, and more about the message being sent. 

While activism and political messages are not uncommon to see in these kinds of awards shows, rarely are those messages voiced as powerfully as they were this year.

All but three women wore black in support of the "Time's Up" movement, and many of the men wore pins showing their support, too.  This movement stems from the increasing number of sexual harassment allegations being leveled by both women and men against some of the most well-known figures in the film industry.

According to Auburn University professor of film culture Andrea Kelley, this political statement is different from many of the others because "it represents a stronger movement," and "a larger confluence of a lot of different cultural factors coming together." 

This differs from the awards shows of previous years because while those seemed to have "that one celebrity that gets on their soapbox," this year was "heavily anticipated, everybody saw it coming, and then it delivered."

She also said that this is not an isolated event since "the Emmy's this year were more about women's issues, and the Golden Globes came around and took the whole groundswell and ran with it." 

The Oscars are the next place to look for these messages, where Kelley said, "we will see that conversation [about women in Hollywood] continued."

Since these issues of female representation in film and the sexual harassment surrounding it feel like such huge issues, it can be difficult as a college student to find something to learn from it. 

Kelley says that students should learn to be "more critical of entertainment and film culture." She asks students to consider questions like, "what does it mean that we are just now getting around to getting more females in directorial roles?" 

The obvious takeaway though is that "we should be encouraging women to participate in media making," according to Kelley.