Feminist highlights from the Academy Awards

The two definite highlights of the evening were Mo’Nique’s win for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Precious and Kathryn Bigelow’s win for Best Director for The Hurt Locker.
Kathryn is the first woman to ever win in the Director category, and as was pointed out by AnnaLeighClark on twitter last night, it happened just before midnight and the start of International Women’s Day. Also, as Shelby Knox pointed out, the statistics about this award were pretty stark: 82 years, 400 nominations, 4 women nominated, 1 awarded.
Mo’Nique’s win was breathtaking, and her passion was there in her acceptance speech. She also made a point of referencing Hattie McDaniel in her speech as well as her outfit. Hattie was the first African American woman to win an Academy Award, also in the Best Supporting Actress role in 1940.

Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech:

First, I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics. I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to. Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey because you touched it, the whole world saw it. Ricky Anderson, our attorney of Anderson & Smith, thank you for your hard work. My entire BET family, my Precious family, thank you so much. To my amazing husband Sidney, thank you for showing me that sometimes you have to forego doing what’s popular in order to do what’s right. And baby, you were so right. God bless us all.

What were your highlights of the evening?