The most hilarious development of the day is a piece by some dude at The Nation, chiding the (actually talented, which is weird for Hollywood) actress Patricia Arquette for promoting equal pay. According to the dude, Arquette was not “intersectional” enough in her pro-equal pay remarks. See for yourselves.
If this is what we now have in lieu of a progressive news outlet, it’s no wonder why the cause of Liberalism is flailing and failing these days.
Clarissa's Blog 
Shakesville was also in a snit about the lack of intersectionality.
I still suspect intersectionality is a poison pill snuck into feminism in order to make it impossible to actually practice.
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“I still suspect intersectionality is a poison pill snuck into feminism in order to make it impossible to actually practice.”
And it gets to really bizarre places where the people denouncing Arquette for her equal pay speech are self-proclaimed feminists. This is extreme bizarredom.
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Every complaint I’ve seen was about her backstage interview about her speech not her actual acceptance speech. I have no problems with her speech. I have huge problems with her backstage remarks.
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A famous person uttered the words “equal pay” in front of an enormous audience. This is what matters and not her deviation from some honestly bizarre and obscure dogma.
It is extremely sad that, unlike conservatives, we just can’t rally around the issues we all seem to agree about and instead passionately police and castigate each other for imaginary infractions.
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Pfft. The Sony hackers have done for equal pay in Hollywood than Arquette. Someone hail them as feminist champions toute suite. At least one major studio has in its calculus that it more expensive to underpay women than not which is more than all the pretty speeches by actresses will do.
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Given that I’m as distanced from Hollywood as one can humanly be, I have no idea what you are referring to with the Sony hackers and one major studio calculus story but I do know about the Oscar acceptance speeches, even though I obviously didn’t watch them.
I’m guessing that many people care about Hollywood stars while fewer people have the same interest in Sony hackers (is this the story about North Koreans or some other story? I’m honestly clueless.)
Of course, to be completely fair, I have to confess that I’m a huge fan of Arquette. As huge a fan as it’s possible for me to be.
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The only recent Sony hacks I know about were over the whole North Korea/”The Interview” thing. Possibly one of these Anonymous or LulzSec type groups have hacked them in the past but I can’t recall. What any of that has to do with equal pay I don’t know- perhaps publicizing confidential payroll records?
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Yes.
As as a direct result of the massive hacker infodump it came to light that not only actresses but executivea were being underpaid.
Also Charlize Theron was able to negotiate an equal pay package to that of her male co-star in a movie as a result. The same story notes that even though the female co-stars in American Hustle won Golden Globes (and later Oscars), they received a smaller percentage of the profits than their male co-stars (who did not). One of the primary obstacles in making sure you get paid equally for equal work is knowledge that you’re being underpaid and the consequences of fighting it after the fact or negotiating for it.
The kind of payroll information that was hacked is normally something that you’d need subpoena to get. In addition, fighting gets you labeled “difficult to work” with, which closes doors even if you win Oscars. It’s no coincidence that Arquette felt empowered enough to make remarks about equal pay and that it happened after the Sony hacks. I doubt she would have otherwise. 😛
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I was being facetious. But studios and companies get away with it because of a lack of information on the part of those affected and because the market does not punish them. Through the hack some women affected came to know and we’re able to rectify that situation. It was not hackers motivation but it was a positive side effect. 🙂
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The watchdogs of ideological purity never sleep.
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This is why no young women want to be feminists. You make the slightest (perceived) misstep, and you are utterly trashed. This pisses me off so much!
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Exactly. And what has this male journalist ever done for feminism that he sits there so smugly, policing others?
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That was my question.
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There’s also this fine bit of micro-analysis. Soon progressives will not be able to say anything without giving other progressives grounds for criticising them….
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/02/23/graham_moore_s_oscar_speech_equated_gay_with_weird_is_that_fair.html
My favorite part is where he says he’s not interested in playing the “Opression Olympics” while devoting an entire column to…. just that.
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Talking about sexuality, there seems to be almost sexual jouissance in these endless screeds that point to out the insufficient orthodoxy of somebody else.
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I think that these sorts of demands for intersectionality bear an eerie resemblance to classic sexism; namely, that women must always think of others and act on other’s behalf, and never for themselves. Apparently, helping ourselves is selfish, and should only be incidental to helping others . It’s only okay to take feminist action or make a feminist statement if you include the well-being of every other oppressed group of people on Earth, when nobody makes the same demands of those other groups themselves. I mean, do we criticize anti-racist activists every time they don’t mention feminism? Would people have criticized a black man speaking out about racism if he didn’t include sexism as well? I don’t think so.
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