The Emmy Awards on Monday night leaned heavily into the woke factor when it honored actress Geena Davis and her Institute of Gender and Media, which specifically aims for woke representation.
In the introduction monologue presenting the Governor’s Award to Geena Davis, actress Sarah Paulson and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes (a pro-abortion activist) presented the Governor’s Award to Geena Davis, hailing her as an agent of “true representation.”
“I first saw Geena Davis in Tootsie. I think she had just two scenes and yet she stayed with me. Why? Her brain. Oh my how very smart she was. You could see it. And then in role after role with all of her other considerable charms, there it was, this shining intelligence that lifted the performance. “She was unique,” began Paulson.
Paulson then credited Geena Davis for freeing her of the “unspoken spell that women should not feature their intellect” on screen.
“It was Geena who wiped that off the slate for me. She was a complete person. Bringing her whole self to the party. Thereby inviting me and countless women to leave nothing of ourselves behind,” Paulson said.
Shonda Rhimes, whose show Scandal featured her lead character Olivia Pope receiving an abortion as the soundtrack played Silent Night, then went full woke as she declared that women represent the majority and therefore deserve “true representation.”
“Representation. A powerful word with deep meaning when seen through the lens of entertainment. For women in television, the journey to true representation has been a frustrating one,” said Rhimes. “And we still have far to go. Now, creating television that features women as they truly are is not a difficult task. It’s also not a magical act of benevolence when it happens. We are, after all, the majority of the population. True representation is our right. As Geena has said to me, it is just plain common sense.”
As Geena Davis took the stage to receive her award for female empowerment, she needed the assistance of several men to help her up the steps to keep her from tripping over her yellow dress.
Geena Davis received the Governor’s Award alongside her organization’s president and CEO, Madeline Di Nonno. According to Deadline, the institute’s “data-driven research, education, and advocacy have influenced content creators to reimagine the media landscape to reflect the world we live in.”
“They analyze representations of the six major marginalized identities on screen: women; people of color; LGBTQIA+ individuals; people with disabilities; older persons (50+); and large-bodied individuals in global Film, Television, Advertising, and Gaming,” noted the outlet.
Speaking with The Guardian in 2020, Davis lamented that once she had “a four in front of my age,” she fell “off the cliff” in terms of Hollywood casting.
“In the early stages of my career, I was blithely going along thinking, ‘Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange and Sally Field, they’re all making these great female-centric movies,” she said. “And I’m getting these great roles, really tippy-top roles, so things must be getting better for women.’ But suddenly, the great roles were incredibly scarce. It was a big difference.”
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