“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.” With many celebrities wading into feminism by offering scripted statements prepared by a PR team, Arquette was able to make a firm point about wage inequality in two sentences on a large platform (with billions of people watching)—creating a positive response from the audience (including Meryl Streep and J.Lo).
But when Arquette was asked to elaborate backstage, she gave a lengthy answer that included this statement: “And it's time for all the women in America and all the men that love women, and all the gay people, and all the people of color that we've all fought for to fight for us now.”
Where to begin? Perhaps with pointing out that “gay people” and “people of color” are both categories that include women. Indeed, when it comes to wage inequality, race is as much a factor as gender. As Arquette explained how she connected her role in Boyhood with wage inequality: “I thought long and hard about how [the single mom in Boyhood] life would have been better with wage equality, and if she made those extra cents on the dollar; and how if she was Latina, she’d need to make those fifty cents more, or how if she was African-American, she’d need to make those 40 cents more.” Like what she suggested, race and sexual orientation are issues that builds on top of the larger issue, wage discrimination.
Many people argue that Arquette's political grandstanding played into every ugly stereotype about “feminism” being about privileged white women trying to become more privileged; and that her comments were bad for the cause of equal pay and for feminism. However, I honestly believe that she was overwhelmed with her Oscar win--hence, her after-Oscar-win ramblings and comments about “women” without the inclusion of race and sexual orientation. It was a definitely a mishap, but hey, at least she redeemed herself with her Time interview. All in all, I am happy she used her precious Oscar time to address this decades-old problem. As Arquette stated, it is a huge discrimination issue affecting women across not just in the U.S. but also everywhere around the world; and its impact greatly affects women's (and their children's) lives.
I have also read the news of Arquette's speech at Oscar. Her address of the women should get the equal rights at men creates much of a stir in recent Hollywood news. I personally admire her courage-- just like Peggy writes in this post-- using the precious Oscar time to address the problem very much. But I think it is a tragedy that people being evil-minded about her backstage comments. In this society, people become more and more cautious on what they say in public, fewer and fewer people (especially celebrities) would really stand out and address the sentimental problems because they don't want to get in trouble. The controversies people have commented on her speak is unfair to her, in my opinion. I believe most of the kind American citizens believe in Arquette's real intention on fighting for the discrimination that still exists regards to gender, race, and class. And I doubt that people like Meryl Streep and J.Lo stand up and applaud for her speaking if what she meant were stupid. I can't help but wonder, why overtime when there are courageous people stand out and fight for some minorities rights, there will be always bad taking and suspicion on those good intentions.
ReplyDeletePeople's making a deliberate misinterpretation out of context on Arquette's speech reminds me of one episode in House of Cards season 3. When Claire Underwood's at the hearing of nominating her as a candidate for UN ambassador, one congressman does not listen to what she was trying to address and make a deliberate misinterpretation on her statement about "the army is irrelevant here" in front of the whole nation. This plot is exactly like what Arquette's experiencing right now, while both of these two females (although one is fictional character) are trying to fight for a better society and fight for human rights, public and media always shift attention from what they're really trying to make a point to the subreption that lead the society to doubt their motivation. I feel sorry for those encourages people and I feel pity on the media, which desire to see the world plunged into chaos.