Laura Marano arrives for the 75th Golden Globe Awards in black. Photo: PA

Listening to the news on Monday morning, I wondered if we had slipped overnight into Naomi Alderman’s feminist sci-fi novel, The Power. There was a rare thematic unity to the items on the 8 o’clock news: the resignation of the BBC’s own China editor over gender pay disparities; the news that women are at risk of undiagnosed heart attacks; and, top of the agenda, the Golden Globes. It’s usually treated as the “fun” item. This time the male newsreader sounded like he was announcing a natural disaster.

There was a hurricane-like force to Oprah Winfrey using the occasion to call time on “brutally powerful men.” Leading the way with four awards was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a film about violence against women. Stars turned up clothed uniformly in black. Black was the palate and black was the mood, as the film industry’s award season played out in the long shadow of Harvey Weinstein.

Of course, there have been plenty of hashtaggable cause celebres in Hollywood (#OscarsSoWhite, #AskHerMore) but it’s hard to remember such a widely co-ordinated campaign as #whywewearblack—one that put any issue before froth, fantasia and designer name-dropping.

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