Patricia Arquette and Why Intersectionality is Necessary

Written by Hannah Denham

“It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

These were the concluding words of Patricia Arquette in her Oscar’s Acceptance Speech on February 22, 2015, that received an enthusiastic response from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez, as well as praise from other advocates for women’s rights across the country.

In the backstage press room, she expanded on her statement with a call for constitutional backing to support wage equality. However, has been subject to recent controversy.

“It’s time for all ... the gay people and people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”

While she did later clarify her controversial statement on Twitter, the conversation that ensued is an important one to address. The issue with this line of thinking is that people by nature are not as simplistic as the limitations of a single category. We are so much more complex than that. However, sometimes our privileges blind us into seeing things as only black and white (in both senses of the phrase). 

intersectionality (noun): The view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity. Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity (Kimberlé Crenshaw, 1989).

Patricia Arquette is a white, straight woman. But there are plenty of women who overlap the lines of racial and sexual orientation: women of color, lesbian women, etc. To simplify this concept that the only women who are affected by wage equality are those who are not on the front lines of anti-racism and LGBTQ rights is to erase the voices of women who cross these borders. In reality, women who have been subjected to racism and other oppression often have greater wage gaps. 

This is why intersectionality is key. Social justice is not a mutually exclusive concept. And feminism does more harm than good without the inclusion of all women — not just straight, white, middle-class women without disabilities. Excluding women who have different experiences limits the scope of change that feminism seeks to acquire and further represses those who are seeking this freedom.

The fight for women’s rights is one for solidarity, for joining hands with people and ensuring that all experiences are heard.