Oscars' Year of the Sausage upstaged by sociopolitical activism

According to the Oscar lunar New Year, it was shaping up to be the Year of the Sausage.

The 87^th Academy Awards were at first glance looking like a celebration of white masculinity in all its common glory. 

The theme of this year's Oscars seemed to be BDSM between straight men. If you think about it, the list of this year's frontrunner nominees conveyed the story of Fifty Shades of Grey much more effectively than the same-named movie adaptation did.

Whiplash, Foxcatcher, and Birdman: all three can be boiled down to a consensual relationship seductive, abusive, consensual dominant mentor and a submissive, sometimes powerless student, with the protagonist a victim.

American Sniper, with its conflicted protagonist, and Russia's Leviathan, the tale of a man whose life crumbles around him, also focused on men struggling in the role of victims.

(Is it a coincidence that Sweden's Force Majeure, which heavily critiqued the self-serving actions of its male lead, was snubbed from a best foreign-language Oscar despite being its critical acclaim?)  

In spite of all this, the actual show proved to be a series of opportunities for sociopolitical speeches that made for the most subversive, powerful, and memorable moments of the entire broadcast.

First, there was Patricia Arquette's call for gender equality (rousing up the likes of Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez) when she won the best supporting actress award.

Unfortunately, she stepped into quagmire with her backstage comments.

"It's time for all the women in America and all the men who love women and all the gay people and all the people of color that we've fought for to fight for us now," she stated.

Due to her awkward phrasing, Arquette was criticized for implying that there’s no overlap between minority groups and social justice movements and that she spoke only on behalf of white, straight women.

Nonetheless, her original intended message—of equality for women—remains the most important point.

Then, there was the stirring performance of "Glory" from Selma by John Legend and Common which had the likes of David Oyewolo and Chris Pine in tears.

The pair followed it up with affecting speeches upon winning the best song award.

Common connected the spirit of King's civil-rights movement to struggles all around the world, citing the fight for freedom of expression in France and pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

"We say that Selma is now, because the struggle for justice is right now," Legend said. "We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now, the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today then were under slavery in 1850."

The LGBT contingent got its moment to speak out in the form of Lady Gaga performing The Sound of Music songbook. Kidding. It was actually when gay host Neil Patrick Harris appeared on-stage dressed in nothing other than a suspicious package. (At least he tried to uphold the sausage theme.)

Then, there was also The Imitation Game's Graham Moore, who won best adapted screenplay.

Moore took the opportunity to talk about how he attempted suicide as a 16-year-old because he felt weird, different, and didn't belong. He addressed other youth who feel the same with what was essentially an Oscar-sized version of the It Gets Better campaign.  

"Stay weird; stay different. And then when it's your turn, and you are the one standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along."

(Moore isn't gay but the British codebreaker Alan Turing, who the film is based upon, was.) 

Sean Penn's green-card quip aside (an inside joke between them that shouldn't have come outside), Alejandro González Iñárritu noted that it was the second consecutive year that a Mexican filmmaker had won best director (Alfonso Cuarón won last year for Gravity). He joked that "maybe next year, the government will inflict some immigration rules [on] the academy— two Mexicans in a row, that's suspicious, I guess." 

But he later turned serious on the subject, stating "I just pray that they [immigrants] can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation."

Meanwhile, there was also best actress winner Julianne Moore drew attention to Alzheimer's and ALS, "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1" (which won best documentarty short) and "The Phone Call" (best live-action short film) filmmakers thanked crisis lines workers, Citizenfour documentarian Laura Poitras thanking journalists for taking risks to tell the truth, and J.K. Simmons reminded everyone to call their parents.

Somehow, almost every major social issue got time at the Oscars, it seemed. 

Although the majority Oscar nominations may have shone on white men, it wasn't without a critical eye. While the nominees may have lacked diversity this year, the main contenders—Birdman, Whiplash, Foxcatcher, American Sniper, even Boyhood to some extent—do, to varying degrees, express discontent among men with the expectations and confines of North American masculinity.

For all the other social movements, from women's rights to racial minority rights to LGBT rights, to truly succeed and achieve the equality they hope for, it will take the one demographic group missing a prominent social movement to transform itself from within. Hopefully what we're witnessing are signs that.