CURTAIN FALLING ON GENDER SPECIFIC ACTING AWARDS
by Thomas M. Sipos, managing editor
[April 17, 2017]
 [HollywoodInvestigator.com] In
George Orwell's
1984, each edition of the Newspeak Dictionary was thinner than
the one before, purging words from the language so as to render
crimethink impossible. If you can't say it, you can't think it.
Feminism has
likewise been remarkably successful in purging English of sex specific
words. Waiter and waitress are out. Server
is in. Steward and stewardess are out. Flight
attendant is in.
Yet despite
feminism's success, sex specific acting awards have proven amazingly
resilient. The liberal Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences still
presents Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress, for Best Supporting
Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Are these
categories sexist? I've never known an Oscar recipient to complain.
Yet when the Screen Actors Guild introduced its acting award in 1995,
SAG said that actor and actress were outdated and
sexist terms. The "proper" term was actor, whether that actor
was male or female. Thus SAG's award categories are for Best Male
Actor and Best Female Actor.
Most film awards
still follow Oscar, but some are following SAG's example. Australia's
A Night of Horror film festival presents awards for Best Male
Performance and Best Female Performance. Are Best Female Actor or Best
Female Performance less offensive than Best Actress? I don't see how.
You're still noting the performer's sex, despite using more words to
do it.
Nor do these
newer, PC terms address the increasingly confused concept of gender.
How many genders are there now? How do you categorize them for awards
purposes? How do you even know what gender any actor identifies as,
unless the film comes with explanatory notes for the awards committee?
Some people identify as "non-binary" (i.e., having no
gender). How to honor a non-binary performer? SAG's once progressive
Best Male Actor and Best Female Actor categories are now hopelessly
non-binaryphobic.
MTV's solution
is to abolish "gender specific categories." The
Associated Press reports [April 7, 2017]:
MTV has
scrapped gender specific categories for its upcoming Movie & TV
Awards. In place of the Best Actress and Best Actor categories, this
year's awards will honor a non-gendered Best Actor in a Movie and Best
Actor in a Show. The move follows the Grammy Awards' decision in 2011
to dump gender distinctions between male and female singers,
collaborations and groups.
This trend has the potential of reducing acting awards by half. Up
until now, actors competed against other actors, actresses against
other actresses. But now actors and actresses will compete for one
award. Yet perhaps importantly, eliminating gender specific acting
awards eliminates the notion that men and women, as actors and
actresses, each bring something unique to a film. As individuals and
in relation to each other (i.e., their onscreen chemistry).
There are no actors or actresses, because there are no men or women.
We're all just interchangeable, genderfluid units.
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