In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This special edition of Keeping Score runs down highlights the feminist wins and milestones at the 2025 Golden Globes—the unofficial kickoff of awards season! From Nikki Glaser’s sharp, solo-hosted monologue that tackled sexism in Hollywood, to historic wins by women like Demi Moore, Karla Sofía Gascón and Fernanda Torres, the event marked a notable shift in celebrating diverse and older female talent.
Lest We Forget
“This is going be a very memorable evening, and maybe not even in the way that you think. I predict five years from now, when you’re watching old clips of the show on YouTube, you’ll see someone in one of the crowd shots, and they’ll go, ‘Oh my god, that was before they caught that guy.‘ It could be a woman, you know. I think 100 percent of the time it’s a man, but it *could* be a woman. It won’t be. It never is. Kind of like Best Director.”
–Comedian Nikki Glaser’s monologue at the start of the 2025 Golden Globes, calling out the ongoing problem of sexual predators in Hollywood.
“The Bear, The Penguin, Baby Reindeer. These are not just things found in RFK’s freezer. These are TV shows nominated tonight.”
—Glaser on the bizarre personal history of RFK, Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“If you’re a woman over 50 in a lead role, they call it a comeback. If you’re a guy over 50 in a lead role, congratulations, you’re about to play Sydney Sweeney’s boyfriend.”
–Glaser on Hollywood’s pressure on women to stay eternally young.
“There’s one thing I hope for this world, and that is for us to wake up one day and be seen as just people with our virtues and faults. I keep saying the same thing: Being trans, LGBTQ, hetero, woman, man, young or old is not going to change how ignorant or intelligent you are. What’s the only thing we can do? To try and think for ourselves and try to be better people or try to understand people better.”
—Karla Sofía Gascón, lead actor in ‘Emilia Pérez,’ winner of Best Musical, in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“I’ll just leave you with one thing, that I think this movie is imparting, is in those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough. I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.'”
— Demi Moore in her acceptance speech for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical for ‘The Substance‘.
Milestones
+ Nikki Glaser makes history as the first woman to host the Golden Globes solo. Her hosting represented a breath of fresh air after last year’s Golden Globes low, when host Jo Koy delivered a sexist, racist monologue including a reference to Barbie’s “big boobies.” Glaser as host was a meaningful symbol of the hard work of all the women nominated this year, combined with her tongue-in-cheeks roasts about the sexism rampant in the industry.
+ Demi Moore wins Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for her role in The Substance. This body horror film reckons with society’s pressure on women to stay young forever.
+ Lead actor Karla Sofía Gascón dedicated Emilia Pérez‘s win for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical to the trans community. Gascón is the first openly trans performer to be nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy. While accepting Emilia Pérez‘s award for Best Musical, she said, “The light always wins over darkness. You can put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you can never take away our soul or our resistance or our identity. I want to say to you, raise your voice and say that I won, I am who I am, not who you want [me to be].”
+ Zoe Saldaña won Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Emilia Pérez, a movie that became the most-awarded of the night. “I know that [the Golden Globes] is a competition,” she said in her speech, “but all that I have witnessed is just us showing up for each other and celebrating each other, and it’s just so beautiful.”
+ Fernanda Torres wins Best Female Actor in a Drama for her role in I’m Still Here. In her speech, she thanked her mother and acknowledged that it’s “such an amazing year for female performances.”
+ Wicked receives award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, beating other films like Gladiator II that lacked Wicked‘s emphasis on women.
How We’re Doing
+ This year, the Golden Globes saw a notable shift in recognizing older female actors, with winners including Demi Moore (62), Jodie Foster (62), Fernanda Torres (59) and Zoe Saldaña (46).
+ Ali Wong wins the Golden Globes’ second-ever award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy for her performance in the Netflix special Single Lady, marking a significant achievement for women comedians. Comedy is still heavily dominated by men, with only 11.3 percent of stand-up comedians in the U.S. women while 88.7 percent are men. Host Nikki Glaser was the other woman nominee in the category for Someday You’ll Die, while the other three nominees, Jamie Foxx, Seth Meyers and Ramy Youssef, were all men.
+ Fernanda Torres became the first Brazilian female actor to win the award for Best Actress in a Drama.
