Feminism Had A Big Audience Last Week

The Golden Globes, the State of the Union, and, well, Twitter were among the biggest platforms for talking about feminism this week. If you think about it, it's remarkable — and inspiring — that these outlets have become platforms for gender equality given their reach in our country. Thanks to these platforms, the best feminist quotes of the past week likely reached millions of ears.

Last Sunday, an estimated 18.5 million people watched the 2016 Golden Globes. On Tuesday, more than 30 million people watched President Obama deliver his final State of the Union address. Although both of these audiences were smaller this year than last year, that's still millions of people hearing and watching a primetime program with feminist perspectives woven throughout. Then, of course, there's Twitter. There are hundreds of millions of people on Twitter around the world, and hundreds of thousands of new users signing up every day. The best feminist tweets of this week weren't only posted to millions of followers (thank you, Emma Watson), but also retweeted thousands of times, hopefully reaching an even wider audience.

It's easy to celebrate when a big name (someone like President Obama) says something feminist — and we should indeed celebrate it. But this week, I'd like to celebrate the millions of people who heard or saw that feminism because, ultimately, isn't it a receptive audience that helps to make their statements so powerful?

Kate Winslet's Girl Power

Kate Winslet was honored with the Golden Globe for best supporting actress for her role in Steve Jobs. Even before thanking her co-star Michael Fassbender and production team, Winslet proclaimed, "I just want to start by saying, what an incredible year for women in film." She continued her feminist thoughts in the press room afterward:

I just think that women are doing such great work. I think that there's a lot of us out there in the game. And I've been doing this for 23 years now; Cate Blanchett's been doing it for probably longer, actually. And then there's Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda. I mean, these wonderful women, who we're so fortunate to stand alongside and to learn from, still. And it's just incredibly exciting to have that array of skill for all of us to be inspired by and to be a part of. That is just wonderful. It really feels fantastic. And there's a real sense of girl power in this year in terms of performance. And it's just incredible to be a part of that.

President Obama's Subtle SOTU Feminism

The president's State of the Union address, the last one he would ever give, focused heavily on the economy, national security, and the need for political reform. There was no one portion of his speech dedicated to the role of women in the workplace or the need for funding for women's health issues. It's just as well, though, because Obama's subtle feminism was perhaps more empowering. He framed women's issues as economic issues and he used gender pronouns strategically, as in this excerpt:

I see it in the Dreamer who stays up late to finish her science project, and the teacher who comes in early because he knows she might someday cure a disease.

Emma Watson's Tribute To Alan Rickman

On Thursday, British actor Alan Rickman lost his battle with cancer. (Rickman wasn't the only beloved celebrity to pass away from cancer this past week.) Rickman's Harry Potter co-star and feminist extraordinaire Emma Watson shared a series of tributes on social media. Among them, she celebrated Rickman's dedication to gender equality with the quote and image above.

Sophia Bush's Red Carpet Shout-Out

Watson makes this weekly feminist round-up pretty often. Last week, she announced that she had started a feminist book club. This week, actress Sophia Bush talked about her experience joining the book club on the red carpet at the Golden Globes:

It always excites me when I find like-minded women in this industry that are working to uplift women. I think, in particular, to see Emma trail-blazing — she's so young, and she's so passionate, and that excites me, that there are other women that are really jazzed about this.

Watch Bush's entire statement in the video above from Entertainment Weekly. It'll make you wish all female celebrities were asked these sorts of questions on the red carpet.

Cecile Richard's Planned Parenthood Interview

On Thursday, Refinery29 published a lengthy interview with Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. In it, the pair talks about their respective congressional hearings, their perspective on millennials, and, of course, their support of women's issues. Richards, in particular, explained that although political opinions about women's issues tend to be split down party lines, the need for women's health services is not:

One in five women have been to Planned Parenthood for health care, and they come from every walk of life. They are Republicans as well as Democrats and independents and everything in between.

The conversation about women's issues could continue later on Sunday evening, when the three Democratic candidates for president take the primetime stage in their first debate of 2016. We won't have the State of the Union or the Golden Globes on our side this week, but a debate-stage discussion of women's health and women's rights could set the tone for another feminist week.

Image: Entertainment Weekly/YouTube