The 2015 Emmys: Gender-bending, groundbreaking

“I guess the new rule in Hollywood is not to wear makeup, or get your hair dyed,” a friend quipped during the 2015 Emmys telecast on Sunday night.

She was referring to actress Frances McDormand, who shepherded HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge” all the way from idea to golden idol – six of them, to be exact, including the award for outstanding limited series, the top prize in its category. Like so many other Hollywood actresses, the Oscar-winning McDormand has complained about the dearth of good roles for women over 40, and Hollywood’s fixation on eternal youth.

“We are on red alert when it comes to how we are perceiving ourselves as a species,” she told the New York Times last fall. “There’s no desire to be an adult. Adulthood is not a goal. It’s not seen as a gift. Something happened culturally: No one is supposed to age past 45 — sartorially, cosmetically, attitudinally. Everybody dresses like a teenager. Everybody dyes their hair. Everybody is concerned about a smooth face.”

But if the 2015 Emmy awards were any indication, the new era of television is about defying these standards, defying Hollywood’s patriarchy, and giving voice to the stories and experiences of minorities, people of color and women.

Indeed, it was hailed as a “history-making” evening after actress Viola Davis became the first African American to win lead actress in a drama series, the most prestigious female acting award in television, for her role as a law professor on ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder.”

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity,” Davis said during her acceptance speech. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”

Perhaps an indication that they should be, Davis was joined in the winner’s circle by African American actresses Regina King, who won a supporting prize for playing a devout Muslim on the TV series “American Crime”; and Uzo Aduba, who took home her second Emmy for playing the psychologically challenged “Crazy Eyes” on “Orange is the New Black.” At the podium, Aduba commenced an emotional speech by thanking “Orange” creator Jenji Kohan, “for creating this show, for creating this space, for creating a platform.” The hit Netflix show is a study in ethnic specificity and minority culture, bringing to light the lives of women from multicultural backgrounds, whether black, Latino, lesbian, Jewish or born-again Christian.

Is it coincidence that the proliferation of female voices in Hollywood has also meant the proliferation of minority ones?

Accepting the award for outstanding directing in a comedy series, “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway used her time at the podium to draw attention to social justice issues.

“We have a civil rights problem,” Soloway said about the America’s legal treatment of the trans community, noting that it is legal in most states to discriminate against transgendered people with regard to housing and jobs. “The more I direct, the more I recognize that directing is kind of litigating for the way I see the world,” she elaborated to reporters backstage. “Straight white men have had their hands on protaganism, the camera, for way too long. People who have access to the camera need to be able to share that with women, with people of color, queer people [and] trans people. People really need to be able to make work from their point of view.”

Jeffrey Tambor, who won outstanding lead actor for his role as Jewish-trans-parent Maura Pfefferman on “Transparent,” also used his soapbox to support the cause: “I had a teacher who used to say when you act, you have to act as if you’re life depends on it. And now, I’ve been given the opportunity to act because people’s lives depend on it.”

In an age when the competition for attention is fierce, it is also significant that comedian Amy Schumer won best variety sketch series for her Comedy Central show, “Inside Amy Schumer.” The show, like her summer blockbuster hit “Trainwreck” is infused with Schumer’s impressions of modern female sexuality. A powerful counterpoint to the notorious “male gaze,” which positioned women only as objects of male desire, Schumer expresses a robust sexual appetite and experience, even as she depicts her own flaws, fears and insecurities. She does what she wants, and evaluates her own behavior.

The night filled with other kinds of history making, too. Actor Jon Hamm won his first Emmy – though nominated a previous 16 times—for his inimitable role as Don Draper on “Mad Men,” which concluded after an 8-year run last season. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” won the most awards in a single year in Emmy’s history – among its 12 wins were nods for (Jewish) co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as the top award for outstanding drama series. And Jon Stewart, who concluded hosting “The Daily Show” after 16 years earlier this summer, took home his 11th win for outstanding variety talk show.

Stewart channeled the changing tide of the night with prescient parting words:

“You’ll never have to see me again.”