The Internet is abuzz with Oscars news tonight and particularly with thoughts on Patricia Arquette's acceptance speech.
After receiving her award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood, Arquette pulled out a slip of paper and used the time to bring up the radical notion of equal pay for equal work.
It has spawned the world's best reaction gif, featuring Meryl Streep and JLo leaping to their feet in support of the sentiment.
Onstage she thanked her fellow "beatiful, powerful" nominees and "every woman, who gave birth to every taxpayer", closing the speech with lines:
Backstage, she elaborated:
The truth is, even though we sort of feel like we have equal rights in America, right under the surface there are huge issues that really do affect women. And it's time for all the men who love women, and gay people, and others, to fight for us now.
The fact that these comments imply that the struggle for equal rights for people of colour, LGBTI+ and other oppressed peoples is somehow over, leaving the path clear to finally work on equal rights for women is a HUGE problem.
To suggest that there some sort of hierarchical order of problem-solving is stupid and misguided. There is not a "to do" list of problems with women at the bottom. No one is standing around saying "Well, we've finally solved racism and homophobia world wide, so I guess we could have a look at dismantling the patriarchy before we break for lunch."
These issues interact with each other. Yes, there is a wage gap for women. But that wage gap is much more pronounced if you're a trans woman of colour from a low socio-economic background. If you can't acknowledge that, then you're part of the problem.
If you can't talk about equality without throwing every other oppressed person under the bus, don't talk. Quietly accept your Prize and take your seat amongst every other white nominee at the whitest Oscars since the mid-90s, and enjoy the statue that the 94% white, 76% male voting panel chose to award you.
Feminism will be intersectional or it will be meaningless. So to Patricia Arquette, I like that you but try harder.
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