Beyond Oprah: Truth, Power and Intersectional Feminism at the Golden Globes

Like many other people the other night, at various points in the evening, I sat on my couch watching the Golden Globes, with tears streaming down my face.

It’s taken me a day to sit with what it was that so moved me.

Of course, there was the incredible speech from Oprah, where her passion, message, and her whole spirit came together in one of the most powerful speeches I’ve ever experienced.

Oprah’s speech WAS the centerpiece.

But, it was a series of other moments that came before and after that stirred a reverence, a hopefulness, and a call to step more fully into my own power as a women and a mother.

It was:

**The visual presence of racial justice activists, joined with actresses, as a show of support for victims of sexual assault and a symbol of the racial, ethnic, and economic dimensions of violence against women

**Laura Dern’s call for “restorative justice” and to “teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture’s new north star”

**Viola Davis’ radiant presence, owning her identity with her natural hair

**The image of so many women in the audience hugging one another and cheering Oprah’s words…especially of Tarana Burke, the original founder of the #metoo movement

**Natalie Portman’s daring calling out of the “all male nominees” who were nominated for Best Director

**Salma Hayak, who herself wrote such a courageous piece about the harassment she endured from Harvey Weinstein, firmly declaring “Time’s Up!”

It was all these moments together that helped me see what “intersectional feminism,” this term I’ve been trying to understand for myself over the last year, really looks like in pure, authentic action.

And it ignited a hopefulness that a new day is dawning, that women are stepping into their truth and their power, that they are doing it in connection with one another, across differences, and that I can do it too.