The New York Times: Sam Smith, the British crooner with a voice often described as heaven sent, announced in September that “my pronouns are they/them.” Days later, the Brit Awards, which had nominated Smith for top male artist earlier in the year, said the categories would be reconsidered for 2021.
8 comments:
Even though this article was sad to see how the commercial theatre industry isn’t being as trans-inclusive as it should be, the article was heartwarming to read how other theatre adjacent industries are being good trans allies. I feel like I should be more aware that the Grammys and MTV awards have done away with gendered categories but I have not been so I was so happy to see that the Grammys haven’t had gendered categories since 2012. I am so utterly not shocked that the Television academy claimed to be inclusive yet failed to actually practice inclusion. I am glad this article brought up the idea of how sometimes being supportive of one group can be exclusive of another. However as a member of the trans community, time and time again I see the female voice being lifted up over the trans voice as well as the grouping of the trans community with the female voice in a way to be inclusive but is just putting the trans and female voice together, which I don’t necessarily think is the right thing to do. This article brings up a great point about how genderless categories see an abundance of male winners and I’m not sure if forcing equality standards on the voters would help but that might be a possible way to get winners to be not just men. And I find it interesting how in Philadelphia this skew toward men didn’t happen. I think towards the end of the article when the author mentions the overarching problem is that men still dominate that industry is true and a separate problem that needs to be solved compared to the issue of being inclusive to the trans-community.
I must confess that on the first day of classes two months ago, when a professor asked students to go around and tell their names, pronouns, and a fun fact about ourselves, I had no idea what a professor meant by pronouns. It took me a while to understand why students are saying “she-her-hers” or “he-him-his” right after their names. Now I know and I am ashamed of my ignorance. But also, I can confidently say that, because I grew up abroad, I have interacted with the discussion of gender far more than most Japanese people. The reason why I am mentioning this experience is because although the article points out the struggle of scrapping gender-specific categories, I am actually surprised at how big the scale of discussion already is. In addition, I think making changes in the entertainment industry has great influence on the world, especially because we are in the information age.
This is a very interesting article and brings up a point in our present that is rapidly changing and it only makes sense that many people, industries, and lifestyles can't really keep up with the times. The introduction of they them pronouns into our society has been a difficulty in itself and there is still plenty of work to do in terms of introducing the concept of people not being gendered in our world. Traditionally, the theatrical industry is highly gendered and its not at any fault to anyone else. It takes stars like Sam Smith to stand up and demand more of our industries so people can learn to accept rather than deflect these types of requests of people that are just trying to be themselves. I think that currently, we're moving toward less of a binary world, but we also have a lot of conflicting movements going on and I hope that we're able to find a happy medium and live in a not just tolerable, but accepting world.
I think this is a very interesting and relevant topic to today’s climate. Before I came to CMU I hadn’t really given much thought to the idea of gender or the lack thereof. I was surprised the first time I was asked what my pronouns were, but I really appreciate that people are making an effort to respect what others identify as. It is very impressive that the MTV awards are getting rid of male and female labeled awards in order to accommodate those that identify as non-binary. As much as it’s going to be a big adjustment for the world to get rid of gender labels completely I think that award shows getting rid of these labels is a step in the right direction. It is very disappointing that the Oscars, Tony Awards, Baftas, and Emmys are not following in the footsteps of the MTV music awards and Grammys.
When it comes to award shows, equality seems to be an incredible challenge for them. My friends and I were just discussing how Halle Berry has been the only African American woman to win the lead actress Oscar in all its history so far. It’s absolutely no shock to me that they would be hesitant to include nonbinary people in the system. I personally find it ridiculous that men and women have to be separated for the acting awards at all. The technical awards aren’t like that and the Grammy’s have caught on, so why does a performance have to be judged on gender? Getting rid of this kind of separation would be inclusive for everyone and cover grounds that are currently being ignored. Sadly, it’s all in the marketing and if the award shows think it’s going to affect them negatively, then they don’t care who excluded as long as they can make their coin.
This article had me go “mmm that’s true!’ “Oh, that’s also true!” “Oh oh! That first thing was wrong.”. It does a really good job bringing up information and points of view from both sides. I agree that gendered categories should be eliminated. They were put in place to make the gender gap seem inexistent. Making it seem like the female roles were as prevalent as the male roles, which they are not. And like they point out, in non-gendered categories the males keep winning. It might be worth a look at how many opportunities there are within that category. Are males wining because they have more “tries”, or are women loosing because they are never re-hired if they fail from the get-go?. I also agree with the argument of “sometimes one group achieves equality at the expense of other minorities.” It’s clearly reflected in gendered categories, women get more opportunities, but nb folks don’t.
Reading about this issue is very interesting and complex. It is unfortunate that the Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys are not ready to change to support the wide variety of people that make up the workforce that these awards celebrate. These awards are meant to be celebrations of artists who are achieving greatly in their work. What is unfortunate is that there may be a well deserving artist who should be praised but will not adequately be without being confined to a label that they personally do not identify with. The acting workforce is comprised of people from all kinds of different backgrounds and it is important to be as inclusive as possible so that everyone has an opportunity to feel included and celebrated for their work. It is good to hear, however, that there are some awards shows, like the MTV Video Music Awards that have removed gendered awards. This is a step in the right direction, a step that the other awards programs should be following in.
The Oscars and Tonys have incredible trouble with making their categories nonbinary for what seems like no reason. The fact that they aren't making an effort to include people with they them pronouns, as well as in general just make everything less frustratingly binary, is really annoying to read about. I think that it is so important for the people who are nonbinary, which so many insanely talented performers are, to be celebrated in the same way. I would be incredibly interested to see what would happen in these award shows if it were to change, and if more straight white men would win everything. This is really the only reason in the world I can think of for not changing award categories to being nonbinary, and even that excuse is pretty lame. Im getting pretty tired of people sacrificing equality to make more money, and this seems to be a prime example of that.
Post a Comment