Bravo, Patricia Arquette.
The Oscars are watched by millions of people around the world every year. From the dresses to the monologue, the memorials and the winners, it’s easily the biggest event in Hollywood.
Which makes it the perfect setting to make an important political statement.
So when a talented, incredible actress addresses the gender pay gap in her acceptance speech, people take notice.
That’s exactly what Best Supporting Actress winner and total legend Patricia Arquette just did.
Watch it here (post continues after video):
46-year-old Boyhood actress Patricia Arquette won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Academy Awards, and she used her precious speech time to make a powerful statement about gender inequality.
Read more: The gender wage gap represents the biggest obstacle to eradicating poverty.
After accepting her award and thanking her family and cast members, Patricia launched into a passionate speech that had the crowd standing and cheering.
To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
We think Meryl Streep’s reaction sums it up perfectly.
If you want to look through all the fabulous dresses and fancy tuxedos from this year’s Oscars red carpet, click through the gallery below.
Top Comments
Yet other feminist sites are tearing her down for her speech not being "intersectional" enough and coming from a place of white privilege and failing to acknowledge that in the matter of seconds she had to speak. It's nice to see articles like this praising it because I'm so tired of white feminists being torn down for not being everything to everyone.
Personally I'm becoming disillusioned with participation in feminist dialogue because no-one can just say anything that relates to all women, as "This is a problem for women" without having to separately and individually discuss the implications for every possible minority group within "women" (e.g. queer women, transgender women, and if the article is by an American which a lot are, African American women, Latina women, Asian American women, and native women).
I have no problem with addressing racial issues, transgender issues, and queer issues. But I'm so tired of no-one being able to address a "women's issue" without also making it into a "queer issue", "transgender issue", etc. Obviously women's issues are also issues for women of colour, queer women, etc. But some issues such as pay equality, expectations of workplace behaviour and attire, career issues etc, are women's issues as a whole, and if a writer publishes a piece about a general women's issue such as that without spending half the article talking specifically about how it affects queer women, trans women and women of colour they are deemed exclusionary, accused of not "checking their privilege", "erasing others' experiences", etc.
We are all women. There are some issues that affect all of us. And we should be able to discuss issues that affect all women by talking about "women" as a broad group and not having to break it down into every possibly minority group of women every single time we discuss that issue. In my opinion, in some cases, it dilutes the point and reinforces separation between sub-groups when we should be working together.
But what would I know, I'm white, so my opinion isn't valid because I'm too privileged.
I see your point and than you for elaborating. But in my opinion, it's not exclusionary to say "Pay equality is an issue for women" without saying "Pay equality is an issue for women of colour, queer women, and trans women." It does not always "erase the experiences of [minority] women" to generalise when it's an issue affecting all women, but that's what a lot of white feminists are accused of.
Her speech was amazing and inspiring. It certainly brought a tear to my eye.