Patricia Arquette used Hollywood’s biggest awards show as a platform to speak about something other than the Oscar she won: women’s equality. But backstage, when Arquette spoke about women’s rights in America to reporters, she made comments that some have criticized as blind to the intersections between race, gender and sexuality.
The 46-year-old actress pleaded for wage equality during her Oscars acceptance speech, saying, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America” — and inspiring unbridled enthusiasm from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez who cheered her on from their seats.
Backstage, Arquette expanded on this topic. “It’s time for us. It’s time for women. Equal means equal,” she said. “It’s inexcusable that we go around the world and talk about equal rights for women in other countries when we don’t have equal rights for women in America. When they wrote the constitution, they didn’t intend it for women.”
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You guys, you got this all wrong. Patricia Arquette just wants gay people and WOC to know we’re not real women. Duh. **bangs head on wall**
— Mon Petty Amie (@NaniCoolJ) February 23, 2015
If you’re still confused, google “intersectionality.”
