Wow and well done to Patricia Arquette. Admittedly, fantastically beautiful Oscar winners don’t really come across as the most oppressed group on the planet, so I doubt she’ll be the one who finally forces the patriarchy to stump up equal pay. But on the other hand, when does a woman ever otherwise get such a massive global platform? Standing there in immaculate hair and make-up, she was the perfect Trojan horse. She couldn’t have looked less threatening to all those studio directors and money men (and they are overwhelmingly men). And kudos to her for using her moment, not to be a good girl and thank everyone around her, allowing other people to take all the credit for her own success, but actually to demand something that all women are entitled to. Not more, but the same. That’s what we want, thank you very much.
I remember when I worked on the Daily Express years ago, two new graduate trainees were taken on, a boy and a girl, both very talented. The boy was interviewed first and told the good news that he’d got the job. The girl was next, and sat down with the managing editor to discuss terms. ‘Now, of course, we won’t be paying you as much as X’, he kicked off. ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘Well, he’s a man.’ All credit to her, instead of telling him to stuff the job up his arse, she just made it impossible for the company to continue doing women down in this shabby little (completely illegal) way. No surprise that she’s now a star of the blogosphere.
The last word (or gesture) on the Oscars has to go to Meryl Streep. Even on the occasional year when she’s not winning an Oscar herself, she still steals the show:
