The Golden Globes awards ceremony of the 2023- 2024 year has just come to a close. Nominees from all around the country come together in Beverly Hills to celebrate their achievements in film and TV production.

The night was filled with tears and laughter, but also some tension. There have been some issues in past years with comments or ideas presented to an individual, but this year targeted a very large audience; women.

After the protests of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, this was an important ceremony to welcome the new agreement but failed to do so. The comedian, Jo Koy, was the host of the event and his comments that night started the failure of The Golden Globes.

The first comment that brought up red flags in his opening speech was about the movies Oppenheimer and Barbie. He states “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'”. This insensitive comment completely undermines the true meaning of Barbie. It talks about women’s unrealistic expectations in the world, women rising to their potential in the world of men, empowerment women should give each other and so much more.

The deeper meaning of the movie was completely thrown away because Jo Koy showed us that most men only pay attention to the physical features, or “Big Boobies”. The writer, producers, and actors of the Barbie movie were reasonably unamused with the comment. Already on the edge of the cliff, Jo Koy pushed the show over the edge when saying “As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between The Golden Globes and the NFL. On The Golden Globes, we have fewer shots of Taylor Swift, I swear”.

Taylor Swift’s success can be appreciated even by some who are not ‘Swiftie’, what Taylor’s fans call themselves. The ‘Swifties’ were outraged by the comment and backed Taylor Swift for supporting her partner Travis Kelce who plays with the Kansas City Chiefs. Taylor Swift should be allowed to go out into the public and watch a football game without backlash from the public.

Taylor Swift is on the biggest tour the world has ever seen with sold-out stadium tickets, and people listening outside of the venue just hoping to catch a glimpse of the star. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie was nominated for the Cinematic and box office achievement award, so the evidence shows that her career has been very successful.

Celebrities should be able to go out in public and live their lives without society nitpicking at their every move, and Taylor Swift going to a football game is apparently, outrageous. Jo Koy’s comments kept going talking about Barry Keoghan’s penis in Saltburn, Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose in Maestro, and more. He did add in his speech ” I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Yo shut up. You’re kidding me right? Slow down. I wrote some of these [jokes], and they’re the ones you’re laughing at”.

While only having the position for a short amount of time, this could be an equation for the jokes not having time to get previewed. Since the backlash on the speech, Jo Koy did come out and say something, but it wasn’t something we expected. He apologized that his audience didn’t understand the jokes and they should lighten up.

Jo Koy needs to come out with an official apology accepting what he said is offensive and he should have been more thoughtful to women’s culture and celebrities. Are The Golden Globes changing for the worse?