Wednesday 25 February 2015

Hot Topic Wednesday - That Oscar Speech!

 
Ok so this is a new regular blog post that I'm trying out as I'm not short on opinions! I love all the fluffy, shiny lifestyle posts but sometimes it's nice to get your teeth stuck into something that provokes a little more thought. So each and every Wednesday I'm going to take a minute to discuss a Hot Topic and this week is 'That Oscar Speech'.

 
I must admit I didn't watch the Oscar's. I started watching the Red Carpet on E! and found it so incredibly tedious that I switched off. I love the idea of the Oscars but an event where a women starve themselves for two weeks in the run up to look good, and then have to endure a 'Mani-cam' circling their feet on the night just makes me cringe
 
Anyway back to that Speech. After it was splashed all over the news I thought I'd better check it out on YouTube.
 
I've got to say I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Patricia rightly took her time to celebrate her win as Best Supporting Actress by thanking all the important people in her life and the cast and crew of Boyhood.
 
She then went on to say "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."
 
So she took the Oscars as a platform to get her opinion of an important issue out there and good on her. If we lived in a truly equal society these two sentences wouldn't have got so much press so she obviously has a point.
 
Many branded this a 'Feminist Rant' which is extremely insulting. Feminism often gets a bad rep and is seen as negative by both men and unfortunately some women. But Feminism is simply women striving to be treated the same as the other gender just as people of different ethnicities and sexual orientation have fought to be treated the same as white and heterosexual people.
 
What it isn't is bra burning women brandishing men as sexist and complaining. There is no doubt in my mind that women are still paid less than men and subjected to a different set of rules. Don't get me wrong equality has come a long way but you only have to look at statics throughout the professional world to confirm that the gap still exists.
 
From a personal point of view I see this divide on a daily basis. I work in HR and I'm pretty sure that my manager is on a great deal less then her male colleagues even though, in my opinion she outshines them in her performance. Likewise while my official title is HR Administrator I get subjected to daily requests to 'sort out the donuts for a team briefing' or 'order lunch for Senior Management'. I might be wrong but I think that if I was male these requests would be less likely to happen.
 
So yes inequality still exists, of course it does. I don't think we'll see a day when it doesn't in some form or another and well done to Patricia Arquette for taking the time to mention it and get the issue some publicity. But a mere sentence isn't going to change the world. As the old saying states 'actions speak louder than words' so lets move forwards as strong females and continue to break into 'male only' professions bridging the equality gap and getting paid equally at the same time.
 
What do you think about Patricia's speech and the issue of gender equality? Did the press make way to much of it? Does the divide exist?
 
I've had my say and I'm off to burn my bra now!

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