Hold on, the Angry Queer Feminist™ is at it again.
As much as I adore Matt McGorry for his acting and support of feminist ideas (his Twitter gives me life), I felt quite stumped after reading the following headline shared by ZEIT ONLINE: "The Feminist Celebrity of the Year könnte zum ersten Mal ein weißer Hetero werden." There are so many things that are just plainly wrong with that article, I find it hard to get a good starting point.
First of all, why is his sexuality newsworthy enough to put it into the headline - especially since it's only mentioned in the headline but not in the actual article at all? Also, a quick google search showed that his sexuality was never really confirmed by him at all. He could easily be bi (see what I did there), pan, gay, asexual, whatever. Why does an author go so far as to assume someone's sexuality and thinks that it is important enough to put it into a headline? If you listen closely, you might hear me faintly ranting over my cup of tea about heteronormativity. Several queer centuries later and people still assume that being hetero and cis is still the status quo? What a time to be alive.
Plus, isn't it rather hypocritical to pit feminists against each other like that? Feminism needs all its different voices and opinions, its intersectionalism in order to provide a broad and complex and rewarding discussion. And awarding one special feminist ("The Chosen One") for their work seems rather forced to me. Wouldn't it be better to highlight the work of many different feminists in different areas? Wouldn't this do a better job at representing the complex and versatile field of feminist discussions instead of unnecessarily simplifying it for the sake of popular culture?
Also, it's worth taking a look at who else was nominated: Amandla Stenberg, America Ferrera, Laverne Cox, Margaret Cho, Rowan Blanchard, Shonda Rhimes, Tracee Ellis Ross, Viola Davis... and many more amazing women.
Is it really that revolutionary that a white man considers himself to be a feminist that he outweighs all these amazing people? Wouldn't it be a great sign to nominate and award one of these amazing Women of Colour? They've been fighting their whole life, always pushing borders of racial prejudices, actually living under the influence of oppression... But hey, let's nominate that white dude, he's pretty hot.
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