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Cate Blanchett Deliciously Slams Predatory Men While Accepting Style Award

Cate Blanchett

Blanchett said that just because women dress sexy it doesn't mean they want to have sex (paraphrased) with you. 

It's been nearly two years since Carol hit theaters but Cate Blanchett is the gift that keeps giving. The outspoken Oscar winner not only dressed for the part of the Style Icon Award In Style bestowed upon her this weekend but she managed to roll up current events and politics into her wonderfully refreshing speech.

Blanchett, dressed in Givenchy, thanked the designers along the way who helped her earn the moniker of a style icon, especially Giorgio Armani, whose clothes she's often donned. Then she launched into praise for women who are fearless in their style choices.

"For me, it's always those women who've been utterly themselves without apology, whose physical presence and their aesthetic is really integrated in a non-self-conscious way into part of who they are," Blanchett said. "And women who know how they look is not all of who they are but just an extension of that."

But the best part of Blanchett's speech, which has been retweeted more than 3,000 times and by actresses including Jessica Chastain and Tessa Thompson, took aim at predatory men like recent pariahs Harvey Weinstein and James Toback who take women's personal expression as a cue to pounce and to degrade them.

"It [style] is about women who feel free to wear what they want when they want and how they want to wear it," Blanchett said. "I mean, we all like looking sexy, but it doesn't mean we want to fuck you."

The actress, who can be seen up next as the villain in Thor: Ragnarok, also dropped a political bon mot mixed with some deliciously vicious humor while commenting on the treatment of women versus men in the public eye.

"No one says to Steve Bannon, 'You look like a bag of trash. Do you want me to throw you out?' But the comments that get said about women on the red carpet..." Blanchett said.

Watch part of Blanchett's speech below.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.