Cate Blanchett: "Looking Sexy Doesn't Mean We Want to F*ck You"

Cate Blanchett is a red carpet pro, but that doesn't mean she hasn't experienced being judged by her outfit choices, whether by an internet troll leaving harsh comments or a man assuming a revealing look is an invitation for sexual advances. Last night, the Oscar-winning actress encouraged women to express themselves through fashion while accepting the Style Icon nod at the InStyle Awards in Los Angeles.

She said in her speech:

"For me, the true icons of style are 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, and women who know how they look is not all of who they are, but just an extension of that. It’s about women who feel free to wear what they want when they want and how they want to wear it. We all like looking sexy, but it doesn’t mean we want to f*ck you."Getty Images

Blanchett speaking at the InStyle Awards.o

The crowd responded with cheers and applause. Even Blanchett's fellow actress Jessica Chastain praised her words on Twitter.

Blanchett continued by touching on the double standard in judging how men and women dress. "No one says to Steve Bannon, 'You look like a bag of trash, do you want me to throw you out?'" she added. "But the comments that get said about what women wear on the red carpet, if you troll through those trolls on the internet, just don’t."

The actress added that for every every style icon there is an iconoclast, and she encouraged women to break the fashion mold. "Bring it on, ladies," she said.

Watch a clip of her speech below.

Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now. 

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