Patricia Arquette won an Oscar last night (Best Supporting Actress, Boyhood) but also won a lot of Twitter love from her acceptance speech. Arquette ended her speech by saying, “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 for all. And equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
Meryl Streep stood up with a big "yes!" Once Jennifer Lopez saw Streep's approval, she joined in on the extra animation, too:
We can give a "yes!" too. Film is particularly egregious, just look at this data: the top 10 highest-paid actors of 2013 made a total of $465 million, while the top 10 highest-paid actresses made a total of $181 million.
Arquette continued talk of equal pay backstage "Equal means equal. The older women get, the less money they make," Arquette said. "It's inexcusable we go around the world talking about equal rights for women in other countries." Arquette continued, "I think we need federal laws that are comprehensive. In different states, they have altogether thrown out the Fairness Voting act. People think we have equal rights, we don’t. Until we pass a constitutional amendment in the United States of America or we pass the ERA once and for all, we won’t have anything changed.” Again, yes!
Arquette lost some of our "yeah" momentum at the end. Maybe she got too caught up in the moment, but Arquette ended by saying, "It's time for all the women in America and all the men who love women and all the gay people and people of color we've fought for to fight for us now." Essentially, gays and blacks don't just join us in this fight. But not only do you owe us, but wage inequality is first and foremost, a straight white woman problem.
wow Patricia Arquette can you please not say this kind of shit http://t.co/7MNq9zVxsT pic.twitter.com/3bFoqQPWwQ
— Jamison Hermann (@jhermann) February 23, 2015Arquette had a lot of great things to say, but she slipped at the end, backstage.
UPDATE: Patricia Arquette took to Twitter to defend what she said backstage, but it sounds like she's not sure why many people were offended.
Guess which women are the most negatively effected in wage inequality? Women of color. #Equalpay for ALL women. Women stand together in this
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) February 23, 2015
If you are fighting against #Equalpay you are fighting for ALL women and especially women of color to make less money than men.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) February 23, 2015
Guess which women are the most negatively effected in wage inequality? Women of color. #Equalpay for ALL women. Women stand together in this
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) February 23, 2015
