Actor Matt McGorry: 'We all know' the wage gap is real

Actor Matt McGorry has ascended to unforeseen heights of bae.

The star of How to Get Away With Murder and Orange Is the New Black, who calls himself “a newb to the fight for gender equality,” posted an extended meditation on the wage gap on Instagram and Facebook in observance of National Equal Pay Day. In it, he threatens opponents of gender equality with “genital jump kicks” — in the most thoughtful, endearing way possible. Here are some key takeaways.

Matt McGorry’s feminism is intersectional (hey, Patty):

Let’s be honest. We all KNOW that women make less than men (and minority women make even less than white women).

He employs a beautiful simile to shut down those who quibble with statistics and ignore the readily apparent inequalities around them:

…disputing the *numbers* is akin to me telling you, “my neighbor takes down his pants and shits in my front yard every day.” And you telling me, “actually, he doesn’t sh*t in your yard on the weekends or National Holidays.” The dude is still sh*tting in my mother-f**king yard. And if I went and sh*t on your garden gnome, I bet you’d get it.

McGorry also points out that the wage gap can’t be blamed on “a bunch of evil managers trying to screw women out of their full earnings,” but rather, systemic sexism. Ambitious young girls are scolded for being “bossy” while their male peers are praised for the same behavior; mothers see their careers stifled by the U.S.’s embarrassingly retrograde parental leave policies. What’s a country to do, Matt McGorry?

We need to create a society where girls and women are getting the same encouragement and support to build their careers as the boys and men are. From the start.

Okay, are you trying to make us have a big crush on you? Because this is exactly how you do that, young man.

Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.