Meryl Streep sounded a tad aristocratic while dissing MMA fighting as “not the arts” en route to a Golden Globes standing ovation.

Which begs the question: Who died and made Meryl Streep the Art Police?

Hers is truly a narrow definition of art.

ART IS someone reaching into the deepest level of their soul, revealing their most private self — their fears, anxieties, confidences, anger, etc.. — and showing it to the world. Art is the voice, the senses, the body … speaking and expressing the language of the soul.

ART IS bravely sharing exactly who you  are to the entire world. It is illuminating the human spirit.

FIGHTING, as it happens, shines a crystal ball on someone’s character. There are no directors yelling “cut” or “take twenty” or scripts to read from. The blood, the consequences, are real. The emotions are real, not contrived.

The body is talking. The body reveals a fighter’s inner most thoughts. The fighter can bring a crowd to its feet with stupendous surprise and raucous applause, much like Meryl Streep did Sunday at the Golden Globes.

Disciplining your body and brain to prepare for a 25-minute war with another highly-trained and dangerous human — and keeping your wits under pressure — is an artform. Very few people can remain poised and precise when the fists are flying. That kind of poise under pressure is an artform.

A fight is a dance. With fear. With Self.

A fight is trying to take the script that you’ve replayed hundreds of times in your mind’s eye — and making that script come true in real life.

A fight is the music of your soul playing out in the form of punches, kicks, slams and chokeholds.

A fight is true, live unscripted drama and real-life theater — versus the artificial theater of Hollywood.

A fight is a driven and intentionally deprived man or woman giving everything for one moment in time — trying to paint a masterpiece inside the cage against steep odds. A fight is a battle of wills where somebody moves closer to their dreams and jumps for joy and somebody else’s dream takes a step back and hangs their head.

A fight is among the ultimate theater. It is an incredible form of expression that allows us to know very intimate details about a person’s character without ever having actually met them.

The truth is, we can watch all of Meryl Streep’s movies — and perhaps never really know who she is. Because she’s playing a role. She’s acting.

But with elite fighters who lay it all on the line — we know exactly who they are. They reveal it when they’re the hammer and when they’re the nail. They are amazing athletes. They are authentic. They are artists.

Art is the body speaking the language of the soul. Few do that better than fighters.