Did the Golden Globes Diversify More in 2015?

Now that the feverish anticipation leading up to the 2015 Golden Globes has wound down, and people are slowly tearing their minds away from the ceremony and looking forward to the upcoming Oscar nominations announcement, it seems like as good a time as any to reflect. While the Golden Globes featured such landmark victories as Gina Rodriguez taking home a Globe for Jane the Virgin, it also snubbed a lot of great work from other people of color — such as Selma, for example. However, we all remember the 2014 Golden Globes, during which Lupita Nyong'o lost out on the Globe that went to Jennifer Lawrence instead, proving that some things just never change. Has there been some improvement on the amount of inclusivity among the Golden Globe nominees? Surely things have gotten better... right?

Well, that depends on which category you're looking at. How have the numbers for women changed between 2014 and 2015? What about the numbers for people of color? And what about the numbers for LGBT actors, actresses, and works? The ever-constant battle for equal representation at any award show ceremony rages on, but there are some victories along with the losses that make the overall reflection on the 2015 ceremony... well, content. Optimistic, even. But let's examine the charts, so you can make up your own mind.

2014

2014 was a notably weak year for LGBT actors and works. There were few, if any, openly gay performers nominated for awards and the list was missing the LGBT works that would be represented in 2015. (See below.) However, 12 Years a Slave brought amazing representation for people of color, to the point of going home with a Globe for Best Motion Picture, Drama. Sadly, fan favorite Lupita Nyong'o lost the Globe for Best Supporting Actress to Jennifer Lawrence, but that loss would be switched around come Oscars time. Heterosexual Caucasian males made up 47.5 percent of the overall nominees, but if you combine the percentage of women and people of color then they dominate the list. Which is certainly better than I expected.

WINNERS: Of the women, and women-led works, nominated for awards, only 0.7 percent of them actually took home a Globe. Of the people of color, and people of color-led works, nominated for awards, only 0.2 percent of them actually took home a Globe. Yikes.

2015

The 2015 Golden Globes was particularly noteworthy for the sheer amount of LGBT representation that was present among the nominees — including shows like Transparent and The Normal Heart and actors like Matt Bomer and singers like Sia. You could practically hear the gasps at home when Gina Rodriguez took home the Globe for her role as the titular Jane the Virgin (at least, until she began crying through her acceptance speech and caused everyone who isn't already a fan of the show to fall madly in love with her.) Between the representation given to women, LGBT works/performers, and people of color, 2015 again managed to have more of those among their nominees list than heterosexual Caucasian males. Insert applause gif here.

WINNERS: Of the women, and women-led works, nominated, only 0.6 percent of them took home the award. Of the people of color, and the people of color-led works, nominated, only 0.6 percent of them took home the award. Of the LGBT performers, and LGBT-themed works, nominated for a Globe, only 0.2 percent of them took home the award. Sigh.

Results

While no more women were represented on the nominees list than the year before, the 2015 Golden Globes saw an increase in visibility for people of color and LGBT performers or themed works. Thus, while I would love to see even more of an increase in representation, some focus should go to making sure that the minorities nominated actually go home with awards. Obviously I'm not calling for the Golden Globes to meet some kind of diversity quota among their winners if it's undeserved, but I hardly think that anyone can claim the cast of Selma, the amazing ladies of Orange Is the New Black, and the out and proud LGBT actors and performers aren't producing work on par with that of their heterosexual Caucasian male counterparts. Sunday's ceremony was definitely more diverse than 2014's, but the bar is set too low for that to be a proper accomplishment. Here's hoping that 2016 will see a nominee — and winners — list that's even more diverse than 2015.

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