Feminist movements have made a big splash in Hollywood, especially at award shows, like the Golden Globes. As talked about in my other blog post, the Golden Globes was a way for people to talk about the Time’s Up Movement and spread the word about sexual assault and discrimination of women in the workplace. With this, everyone was curious to see how that would transfer to the Oscars. Unfortunately, there was not much discussion about Time’s Up as compared to the Golden Globes. Instead of the discussion happening on the carpet, it happened more on the actual Oscar stage.

This Sunday, six women took home the legendary Oscar trophy with them. Six. That has been the fewest number of female winners since 2012 where only four women won. With this, only four women took home Oscars that were in categories not actually designated for women. Aside from actress in a leading and supporting role, women won for best animated feature, best makeup and hairstyling, vest short film, and best original song.

Women have had the most Oscar wins in 2014 and 2016, bringing in 12 awards which is two times the amount of 2018. People were not happy about this and many people, especially celebrities, had a lot to say about it. One of the women who had the most to say about it was the Oscar-winner herself, Frances McDormand. During her speech, she said, ““All the female honorees, stand with me — all the women. Look around because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.” Also, when asked how she felt about demanding more gender and ethnic diversity in Hollywood, she said, “Oh, yeah. Majorily. We’re not going back.” Emma Stone, who presented the award for Best Director, also pointed out the male-dominated award ceremony by simply stating, “These four men and Greta Gerwig created their own masterpieces this year,” which was met with an overwhelming applause.

While these two, among other women, were enthusiastic about the progress of women in Hollywood, other’s were not so happy about it. For example, director Sam Taylor-Johnson is not happy with the “progress” that has been made, saying, “How many times have we felt, ‘Oh there’s going to be change,’ only to turn the corner and be let down.” Fellow actress, Laura Dern, is discouraged yet hopeful, saying, “It’s changing.” However, she notes that the fight has to continue each and everyday. Talk alone won’t be able to fix this, it will only take action, especially from inside the system. It has been clear that white men are the ones who are winning, yet not many of them even mentioned the Time’s Up Movement or any of the politics surrounding women in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who is the first woman nominated for best cinematography, was very upset with these men who did not step up and talk about this issue, “Why can’t a man get up there and talk about some of the same issues that we’re all facing?”  

With this, here are some women who made history in this year’s 2018 Oscars:

1. Rachel Morrison:  first woman ever nominated for cinematography Oscar for her work on the movie, Mudbound. She also did the cinematography for Black Panther, which is getting much praise for its special effects.
2. Greta Gerwig: she was the only women nominated for directing as well as the only solo woman nominated for screenwriting in 2018.
3. Mary J. Blige: the first person in Oscars history to be nominated for both Supporting Actress and Music (Original Song) for the same film.
4. Ildikó Enyedi: the only female director nominated in her category of Foreign Language Film. She is only the fourth woman to win in this category in history.
5. Tatiana S. Riegel: she is the only woman nominated in
   the category for Film Editing because of her work on I, Tonya.

Feminism. This word has been passed around all over the past couple of years, especially most recently. Today, almost everyone knows what the word “feminism” means. However, this was not the case twenty years ago, this was not even the case five years ago. In 2018, we are more focused then ever on feminism and women’s right. This is very important and clearly a good thing but we need to keep this momentum going. One of the problems with the this movement is that people do not understand what feminism means. Many people have the wrong idea of feminism and think that is is simply hating men. This, however, is not the case in the slightest. With this, we need to be teaching everyone, especially the younger generations, about feminism, what it means, and how to apply it.

Of course, women have a long way to go to be recognized equally to men but if we continue this fight, with both men and women of all ages and ethnicities working together to put an end to this, we will succeed.