Poor Patricia Arquette. No doubt she thought that by sticking up for wage equality for women during her Oscars acceptance speech, she\u2019d become a real-life heroine of the feminist movement. She\u2019d be showered with accolades, hosannas, and you-go-girl whoops.<\/p>\n
Instead she\u2019s encountering ridicule and contempt that feminists typically reserve for white, male, Fox newscasters.<\/p>\n
Why? Because, without realizing it, she\u2019s upset the oppression scorecard on which feminists\u2019 game of identity politics depends. But instead of pillorying Arquette for not knowing how to play, may be it\u2019s time for feminists to rethink the game.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that Arquette\u2019s remarks weren\u2019t weird. They were. First, during her acceptance speech, she suggested that women deserve wage equality with men because they give \u201cbirth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation.\u201d But where does this ova theory of value leave non-procreating women who fail to secure Uncle Sam\u2019s future revenue stream?<\/p>\n
Then, backstage, she went into full Joan-of-Arc mode, demanding that \u201cgay people, and the people of color\u201d join her fight to end wage discrimination against women \u201conce and for all.\u201d This is a very odd statement coming from a lady so rich that she actually chooses to forego wages. One can debate whether Hollywood\u2019s pay scale discriminates against female actors, but that\u2019s pretty irrelevant when it comes to Arquette. She has joked that she got paid less for Boyhood, a brilliant indie movie 12 years in the making that won her the Oscar, than she paid her dog walker. Why did she do it? Because it was a satisfying role that she could amply subsidize with lucrative gigs on TV shows such as CSI and Medium. In other words, she willingly traded monetary income for psychic income, a \u201cluxury\u201d\u2014her word not mine\u2014that the vast majority of men in the world\u2014white, Asian, black, Latino, native American\u2014can\u2019t afford, forget about women. If anything, instead of complaining, she should be marveling at a system that gives her such options.<\/p>\n