Gendered awards have ‘no real rationale,’ experts say. Why won’t Hollywood ditch them?
While attending the MTV Movie and TV Awards in early June, E.R. Fightmaster appreciated that “Peacemaker” actor John Cena and “Hacks” star Megan Stalter were both in the best comedic performance category. The “Grey’s Anatomy” star said it felt right for actors to be acknowledged for their talent in gender-neutral categories.
“It felt like we were all being honest about our art, that all of us are artists and it doesn’t really matter what genital is attached to which artist,” said Fightmaster, who is nonbinary. “It really should not matter what we look like when we are naked. … It should just be the art we are making.”
The MTV Movie & TV Awards changed to gender-neutral categories in 2017, the same year nonbinary actor Asia Kate Dillion turned down Emmy consideration after being asked by Showtime whether they would enter the best supporting actor or actress category for their role in “Billions.” (Multiple nonbinary performers, including “Hacks’” Carl Clemons-Hopkins and “The Crown’s” Emma Corrin, have since been nominated for Emmys.)
Fightmaster, who has also appeared in Hulu’s “Shrill” and Showtime’s “Work in Progress,” broke new ground in 2021 when they were cast as Dr. Kai Bartley on ABC’s long-running medical drama — the first nonbinary doctor in the series’ 18 seasons on air.
The 30-year-old said they had discussions about which acting category they wanted to be submitted in for Emmy consideration for their work on “Grey’s Anatomy,” which has received more than 20 acting nominations over the years. The Television Academy has 12 acting categories for lead, supporting and guest actors in drama, comedy and limited series. However, the categories are divided by gender, placing Fightmaster in a difficult position.
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When it comes to major awards such as the Oscars and the Emmys, only the acting categories are gendered; honors for directing, editing, writing and the crafts are not. Nonbinary actors are eligible to choose whether to submit in the actor or actress categories, but Fightmaster said actors whose gender identity is not male nor female shouldn’t feel forced to do so.
“I personally cannot abandon my identity and my community to receive an accolade, and that’s not to diminish the accolade. It’s a career-changing accolade. It’s an award that actors work their whole lives for. Genderqueer actors should not have to abandon their identities to receive acknowledgement about their merit and their talents,” Fightmaster said.
No Oscar nominees in 2022 identified as nonbinary, but a source familiar with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision making said the organization, which gives out the Academy Awards, is prepared to offer both nominee certificates and engraved statuettes using gender-neutral language, with the title of the award being “Academy Award of Merit for performance in leading/supporting role.”
As for the Emmys, Jim Yeager, a spokesperson for the Television Academy, said in an email that since the third ceremony in 1950, performance categories have been divided between men and women. Before this, the categories were designated as “outstanding personality.”
“Regarding non-binary performers, it is the decision of the individual to submit as either an actor or actress,” Yeager said.
The Screen Actors Guild Awards, which focus solely on acting in film and television, also divide its categories by gender. A representative from SAG said the group could not offer an interview or statement on why SAG separates its acting categories in time for this story.
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The Gotham Awards, which honor independent films, announced in August 2021 that they will no longer divide acting categories by gender.
Jeffrey Sharp, the executive director of the Gotham Film and Media Institute, said the Gotham Awards, which aired its 31st ceremony in November, have evolved alongside the industry, citing the inclusion of TV awards in 2015.
Sharp said the Gotham Awards were not the first to make the change to the acting categories, acknowledging the MTV Movie & TV Awards gender-neutral shift in 2017 and the Berlin Film Festival switching in 2021. Sharp added that they have already included a gender-neutral “Breakthrough Performer” category since 1998.
“It felt like a moment where we as an organization can step up,” Sharp said. “It wasn’t a radical shift for this organization to really just open up the lens and make this move to nongendered categories.”
Beyond film and television, the Recording Academy stopped dividing the Grammy Awards in 2011, allowing male, female and nonbinary musicians to compete against one another. Nonbinary singers Sam Smith and Demi Lovato have been nominated for multiple Grammys since, with Smith winning four in 2015.
“I’ve never understood why there is an actor and actress category,” said Alison Trope, a USC clinical professor and founder of Critical Media Project, a media-literacy resource focused on representation and identity. “Acting is a craft, so it doesn’t need to be divided by gender. … It’s something that somebody decided in 1929 to do, but there’s no real rationale behind it.”
Trope said the argument that having gendered categories benefits women — who in this view are at risk of being nominated at a lower rate because the entertainment industry tends to favor men — could also be made about race, which categories are not divided by.
At the 2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards, half of the winners for the acting categories were men and half were women. As for the Gotham Awards, two of the four performance categories awarded two winners, a man and woman, while the other two were won by a man and a woman, respectively.
Fightmaster said having gendered acting categories prevents the institutions that hold Hollywood’s biggest awards shows from addressing sexism in the industry. They argue that if the binary were removed and suddenly men predominantly won, the industry would be forced to acknowledge the sexism that still exists in Hollywood.
“I think it’s very honest to say that we value male actors over everybody else. We think their acting is more serious and we think it requires more intensity and more bravery and we tend to be more impressed by it,” Fightmaster said. “It is sexism. It is internalized sexism. It is chauvinism. And with acting specifically, we are all waiting. We have all been trained to wait for the best actor category because that is the highlight of the evening. It’s on its face sexism.”
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Additionally, they said they believe gendered acting categories hurt and limit all types of actors regardless of gender identity.
“Hollywood is this big mirror to society and more importantly, we are the big progressive mirror to society. We are supposed to be showing the rest of America and the world what it can be, not just what it is,” Fightmaster said. “If we as Hollywood cannot step up to the plate and cannot dismiss this binary, and just talk about our art as art and not art made by men, art made by women and art made by other, than we are doing a disservice to everyone, not just for ourselves and not just the actors we are excluding.”
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