Melissa Leo Controversy

When Melissa Leo won the Oscar on Sunday for Best Supporting Actress, she gave probably one of the most honest reactions anyone could ask for. She said "fuck."

Yes, it's an offensive word but if I won an Oscar, I'd react the same way.

We were discussing the scandalous moment in my Arts Criticism class yesterday and one girl couldn't believe that a 50 year old woman would use such language and was disappointed that Leo couldn't get it together and, "act like a lady."

My inner feminist became my outer feminist. I groaned and said in my head, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!?" Only, it wasn't just in my head. The whole class stopped and turned and waited for an explanation.

After taking a breath, I responded, "If I just won an Oscar - which just so happens to be the highest prize for my profession, the last thing I would be concerned with is acting like a lady, whatever that means. Age, class, gender, race, I don't care who you are but you are probably going to react like a human being first and foremost. She's no less feminine because she said fuck, definitely more human, but no less feminine. Telling her to 'act like a lady' is far more offensive to me than her using the word fuck.'"

I may have officially become a feminist in that moment.