While Trying to Promote a Film About Equality, Meryl Streep Offends a Lot of People

Meryl Streep on the cover of TimeOut London.

Did Meryl Streep actually do something not-so-amazing? The three-time Oscar winner—beloved and lauded by pretty much everyone in Hollywood and everywhere else—is facing backlash for wearing a t-shirt printed with the phrase “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” on the cover of TimeOut London.

Emmeline Pankhurst, the celebrated British feminist and activist who played an integral part in helping women win the vote in 1918, is the woman behind the words. Streep’s plays Pankhurst in the forthcoming film Suffragette (the reason she’s on TimeOut’s cover) and her co-stars—Carey Mulligan, Romola Garai and Anne-Marie Duff—also wear the shirt in the magazine, though Streep has taken the brunt of the criticism.

While Pankhurst’s quote was initially uttered in the middle of her struggle for gender equality nearly one hundred years ago—a movement, it should be noted, that focused almost exclusively on the rights of privileged, white women—it’s an unfortunate choice of words in today’s current racial landscape. Critics took to social media to point out that it diminished both the role of women of color, and the plight of slaves, who, of course, had no choice but to submit to the oppression of their day.

In a statement released by TimeOut, the magazine acknowledged the backlash but stated that the quote was “intended to rouse women to stand up against oppression” and that “the context of the photo shoot and the feature were absolutely clear to readers who read the piece.”

For reference, here is the complete text of Pankhurt’s speech, which she gave to the the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1913, shortly after her release from imprisonment for her activism:

“Know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel than a slave. I would rather die than submit; and that is the spirit that animates the movement…I mean to be a voter in the land that gave me birth or that they shall kill me, and my challenge to the Government is: Kill me or give me my freedom: I shall give you that choice.”

Taken out of that context—and worn exclusively by white actresses—the quote is undeniably tone-deaf, particularly in America where the terms “slave” and “rebel” have much more racially charged connotation than in Britain. (TimeOut stated that it received zero complaints from the half million UK readers who picked up the mag.)

How ironic and unfortunate that Suffragette—a story about the empowerment and triumph of a disenfranchised group—should have unwittingly sparked such a maelstorm.

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