In case you don’t have a Twitter account or access to the Internet, today (or tonight if you’re on Pacific Standard time) The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood hosted the 87th Academy Awards. Amid a flood of speculative tweets and grainy post-speech YouTube videos, something else stood out in the social commentary this year: Feminism.

Apparently, 2015 is the year Feminism won the Oscars. It started when The Representation Project, a group who uses film as a catalyst for overcoming limiting gender stereotypes, successfully launched the #AskHerMore campaign. The aim of #AskHerMore is simple: to encourage the media covering the Oscars this year to ask female guests more than simply “who are you wearing?”. The guests, after all, are successful and accomplished artists. You don’t need a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism to craft a meaningful question for someone who’s risen to the top of their artistic field. The hashtag is now trending on Twitter and is being championed by the likes of Amy Poehler, Reese Witherspoon and Lena Dunham. It’s heartening to see A-Listers calling out sexist journalistic practice on the red carpet.

As if that wasn’t enough, Patricia Arquette, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, gave a rousing acceptance speech where she implored ‘every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation’ to demand the equal pay rights they deserve.

“t’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

Amongst the thousands applauding, both at the event and undoubtedly from home (I know I was cheering), Meryl Streep’s rapturous adulation quickly went viral.

Amidst the relentless march of GamerGate, including Supanova’s recent decision to support it’s chief advocate, Adam Baldwin, and the confounding uproar over the new Ghostbusters all female cast, the FeminOscars (patent pending) is a breath of fresh air and a triumph worth celebrating. However, I can’t help but wonder: how do the events of the Oscars impact the lived experience of men and women fighting for women’s rights on the Internet and in their local communities? Whilst it is truly touching to witness the upper crust of the entertainment industry take a stand against sexism, there is a risk that the momentum gathering now will soon fizzle like many viral videos and trending hashtags long past.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t question the sincerity or the integrity of the celebrities at this years Oscars who took a stand in some way against sexism in the entertainment industry. What I do question is the efficacy of a staged media spectacle as a platform for meaningful advocacy. The Internet works in bites, clicks, trends, links and grabs. Media spectacles are impermanent by nature and thus so too are their “lessons”, in many cases. The difference between a spectacle that ignites a temporary spark on the Internet and a social movement is simple: uptake by a grass-roots community. If mass media is the spark, then social media is the gale that fans the flames, but it’s not enough to simply share, like or follow. Real change, like that we’re currently witnessing in the gaming community thanks to the likes of Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu, comes from taking a single idea and building it into a cause which you must continue to champion long after the fanfare dies away.

Let’s treat the events of this year’s 87th Oscar Awards as building blocks: a gift from which we can create something bigger and more powerful. A gift which empowers all women in the entertainment industry – from A-list actresses to girl gamers, cosplayers and feminist bloggers – to fight for equal rights in this space.