Earlier today, Stormzy won the Brit Award for Best Male Artist, beating out Harry Styles, Michael Kiwanuka, and Lewis Capaldi. In his acceptance speech, he said: “To be the best male, I have got the most incredible females in my team. You lot are the greatest, the best male is nothing without the best females. I love you guys.”
Now, while this is such a gentlemanly move from such an iconic rapper, it sheds light on a massive issue in award shows; awarding based on gender. Why on earth are we still segregating people based on gender?
The concept seems widely outdated, given we’re striving for equality in this day in age. If we keep handing out awards for the best boy and the best girl, it perpetuates a version of normality where we only compare ourselves to those only within our gender.
Furthermore, if we unpack this a little further, it’s not hard to see how fundamentally problematic it is, given there is no place for non-binary people. By having an award for “Best Female” and “Best Male”, you are robbing those who don’t define themselves as either from receiving any recognition. For example, Sam Smith has won many-a-Best-Male-Artist award, but now, as he has come out as non-binary, where will they be nominated? The same goes for actor-musician Janelle Monae.
There are some award shows where gender does not play a role in the recognition process, like the Grammys. But for many acting awards or celeb-based awards, gender more-often-than-not comes up. In 2017, the MTV Movie & TV Awards ceased awarding based on gender, but other bigger award shows haven’t followed suit.
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That same year, non-binary Billions star Asia Kate Dillon, raised the issue with the Emmys, saying: “I’d like to know if in your eyes ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ denote anatomy or identity and why it is necessary to denote either in the first place?” The response she got was positive in Dillon’s eyes, as the Emmy’s stated that Dillon could submit into either category and the Academy would support their decision.
It begs the question, at what point will all the awards shows cancel gendered awards? Fun fact: when the term “actor” surfaced in the 1500s, it was a non-gendered word. Let’s get back to that definition, shall we?
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