Jump for Joy Didn’t Happen Here: A Feminist Response to Patricia Arquette's words at the Oscars from someone who also reaps the benefits of White Privilege
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written in 1923, two years after the suffragist fight for voting rights was finally won by the passing of the 19th Amendment. It has since been ratified by 35states, just three states short of the threshold for putting it in theconstitution. The fact that we live under a constitution that fails to provide fundamental equality for all citizens no matter their presumed, implied, or affirmed sex is unjust. The injustice of it is directly related to laws that govern women’s bodies, that center on shaming and blaming victims of sexual violence, that simply do not allow for the same rules to apply to woman in the justice system as they do for men. For Patricia Arquette to use the Oscars as a platform to be a strong loud voice in support of the ERA is, in my opinion, a beautiful and brave choice. What is even more important though is what she actually said.
I steered clear of the Oscars on Sunday but I was taken by the social media buzz about her words. In her acceptance speech, she stated, “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,” hear, hear right? I was listless. I puzzled. I wondered if I was hearing her right. That taxpayers, birth mothers, and citizens of the United States have been fighting for “everybody else’s" equal rights and it’s time now for “them” to have the attention. Her language reminded me of speeches of white suffragists arguing that if the Negro has the right to vote then so should we. The same rhetoric of “we” in which White Suffragists who were abolitionists felt entitled to the support of people of color because they fought to end slavery.
Just in case I was completely taking her words out of context from the acceptance speech, when she was backstage with the press she shared, “It's time for all women in America and all 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," which to unpack this by deduction of “us” and “we’ve” what she is leaving to fight for is white heterosexual woman. The yuckiest stomach churning acidic piece for my feminist belief system to chew on is that this, I am certain well-meaning belief on her part, hurts the woman’s movement. It hurts the movement because it denies the reality of Intersectionality, of Interlocking Oppression, of Racism. It reinforces a sense of entitlement among whites and furthers the misnomer that Feminism is an exclusive rather than inclusive movement. Not that I heard any affirmation of feminism in her comments. Which I argue to do so could marginalize her from the “us” she is so passionately fighting for.
Today, a myopic perception of white heterosexual privilege is embedded in dominant white american culture. I am grateful for Patricia Arquette’s audacity. I hope that her fervor will lead people to learn more about the ERA and to face the white heterosexist entitlement she obliviously and albeit ignorantly reinforced. That white people will begin to understand and live the understanding that only when, “your liberation is bound in mine,” will there be true unity in equality movements, (Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s). Letting go of the entitled premise that since I go to your protests you should come to mine. Learning instead to engage in actions in which unity is vital and fueled by intent.