Matt Okine used his acceptance speech at the 2015 ARIAs to talk about gender inequality at the awards ceremony, however, it didn’t make it to air on last night’s broadcast.
“I’d feel bad if I didn’t make a point of something that I feel a little bit weird about,” the Triple J co-host said after beating out four other male contenders for the Best Comedy Release win. “I don’t think there were any women at all nominated in the comedy category just then. I don’t think there are any women who are featured artists on tonight’s show, even.”
Onya @mattokine for using your award win to speak out about the lack of female representation at the #ARIAs. You’re a real gem
— Music Feeds (@musicfeeds) November 26, 2015
Although he recognised that Tina Arena would perform for her induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, he said, “This is really serious. Other than that there’s a couple of featured guests, there’s no one, you know. I’d feel stupid if I didn’t use this opportunity to say something about that.”
Performers included Ed Sheeran, Jarryd James, Vance Jo, Peking Duk and Safia and Conrad Sewell, while Flight Facilities were joined by Owl Eyes, Hermitude were joined by Mataya and Jessica Mauboy and The Veronicas sang along with Tina Arena for an epic “Chains” execution. As you can see, the male to female performance ratio was a little out of whack.
“What am I supposed to do, just be passive about it?” – @mattokine on his #ARIAs acceptance speech where he called out the lack of women.
— Music Feeds (@musicfeeds) November 26, 2015
“You know being a guy you can be like ‘I don’t hit women, I’m doing my part’ but it’s not enough.” @mattokine backstage at the #ARIAs
— Music Feeds (@musicfeeds) November 26, 2015
We really hoped that Channel 10 would choose to air a speech of such importance, but, luckily for us and women everywhere who are affected by gender inequality within their industries, nothing gets past social media these days.
[Via Music Feeds]
