Patricia Arquette’s victory speech for Best Supporting Actress (Boyhood) about closing the wage gap for women in America, got Meryl and J-Lo air-punching. But then she caused a social media shitstorm by expanding on her comments, saying backstage, “It’s time for all the women in America and all the men who love women and all the gay people and all the people of colour that we’ve fought for to fight for us now.” It was interpreted by some as saying the LGBT community and racial minorities should fight for white feminist rights, so now Arquette has taken to twitter to defend herself.
In a series of posts she clarified her position: “Wage equality will help ALL women of all races in America. It will also help their children and society.” To some, Arquette was suggesting the fight for minority rights was a fait accompli and that those minorities should now fight for white American women’s right to equal pay. Others called out the apparent exclusion of the LGBT community and racial minorities from the same fight. Commentators like Roxane Gay criticised Arquette for the apparent dismissal of LGBT or racial minorities struggle: “The idea that queers & POC [people of colour] have had their time in the struggle spotlight long enough. Eek. Ma’am. Congrats on yr Oscar tho. You are talented.”
Under her @pattyarquette handle, Arquette has now defended her comments: “I have long been an advocate for the rights of the #LBGT community. The question is why aren’t you an advocate for equality for ALL women?” Addressing the criticism further, she said: “If you are fighting against #Equalpay you are fighting for ALL women and especially women of color to make less money than men.”
In the twitter vortex, others defended Arquette, saying that despite her clumsy language, it was unlikely the actress was suggesting only white American women deserved equal pay. “Seemed like she meant “all for one, one for all,” said @readwritenap, summing up the defence’s line on twitter.