If performance categories were merged…

[JennyLewisFan Joined: Sep 3rd, 2019 Topics: 9 Posts: 1712 View Predictions]

#1203517128

Hello, movie buffs.

I’ve been on Gold Derby for a while now, but I’m new to the movie forums.

I’m sure a thread like this already exists, so, let me know if it does. I just wanted to have your thoughts on if Best Actor and Actress should become Best Performance in a Leading Role and Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress should become Best Performance in a Supporting Role.

I ask so because

1. Non-gendered/other-gendered people are, by the day, increasing and the academy’s current performance categories wouldn’t cater to them.

2. Though, by a longshot, not the Oscars, the Grammys merged their gender-specific categories awhile ago and it’s been a pretty smooth ride ever since.

3. With feminist movements on the rise each passing day, I feel this is bound to happen sometime.

 

But what are your thoughts? Let me know in the replies, even if this issue has probably been battled 40 times before in these forums lol.

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[The2ndAvenger Joined: Dec 5th, 2018 Topics: 4 Posts: 308 View Predictions]

#1203517200

No, if only because this way there’s no complaining about sexism if more men happen to be nominated than women.

"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." - William Gibbs McAdoo

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[m844 Joined: Jan 4th, 2020 Topics: 0 Posts: 156 View Predictions]

#1203517212

You’re not the first to bring this up, but I think it will never happen.

The Television Critics Association (TCA) is the only major awards group that I’m familiar with that does this: Individual Achievement in Drama and Individual Achievement in Comedy going back to the 1996-1997 years. However, look at the year 1997-1998 for Drama: there are five male nominees with the winner being a man, Andre Braugher. In recent years, there have been majority female nominees, so it would be interesting to understand why that happened. 5/6 drama nominees and 5/6 comedy nominees last year were female. The fact that it’s been almost a quarter century, and no other major awards group has followed suit means that it’s not a popular idea at all.

Given the ton of criticism over there being no female nominees in the Director category at the GG, BAFTA, DGA, and Oscars, I don’t think the Academy would risk a situation where you could have all male acting nominees or winners. You have two guaranteed female winners on Oscar night: Lead Actress and Supporting Actress. So many of the other categories have been male dominated, which reflects the lack of opportunities for women in the industry, particularly in the technical categories like Sound, Cinematography, or Visual Effects. Most of the Screenplay winners have been men. All but one Director winner have been male. Almost all the producing winners have been male.

The history of the Lead Actress and Supporting Actress categories is so storied as well, from Katharine Hepburn to Halle Berry to Hattie McDaniel to Patty Duke. It’s fun to compare contemporary winners with past winners in the same category, but as soon as it becomes combined, you can’t really do that anymore, especially if the new winners are mostly male. It would also end up in a reduced number of categories to present on Oscar night.

So my personal opinion is it will never happen because of the storied history of the Lead Actress/Supporting Actress categories and the potential to backfire. Imagine if the two acting winners were male and every other winner was male. It would be a PR disaster.

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[JennyLewisFan Joined: Sep 3rd, 2019 Topics: 9 Posts: 1712 View Predictions]

#1203517708

But what would you say is someone who doesn’t identify as either male or female’s best shot at a performance Oscar?

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 10 Posts: 1591 View Predictions]

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 30 Posts: 2071 View Predictions]

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[The2ndAvenger Joined: Dec 5th, 2018 Topics: 4 Posts: 308 View Predictions]

#1203517992

JennyLewisFan wrote:

But what would you say is someone who doesn’t identify as either male or female’s best shot at a performance Oscar?

Not having the Academy decide awards?

"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." - William Gibbs McAdoo

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[The Girls' Room Joined: Jun 20th, 2018 Topics: 0 Posts: 1180 View Predictions]

#1203518061

wrote:

As long as the nominees are 10 (5 men, 5 women) in each category, it could happen.

Isn’t the whole point of merging to be inclusive for non-binary people?

watch I May Destroy You

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[Dan Backslide Joined: Apr 24th, 2016 Topics: 45 Posts: 3250 View Predictions]

#1203518076

It’ll never happen. Not only will people be pissed off if the gender ratio is one sided, but then there’s the additional problem of making a new category specifically because of non-binary people, which will almost certainly result in them still not getting nominated.

The idea of merging the categories may be well intentioned, but but it’s only gonna cause problems.

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 30 Posts: 2071 View Predictions]

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[Dan Backslide Joined: Apr 24th, 2016 Topics: 45 Posts: 3250 View Predictions]

#1203518093

wrote:

Give them their own category then.

Then you have another problem where you have men and women joined together, but non-binary people are relegated to a separate category. That would probably make things worse.

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 30 Posts: 2071 View Predictions]

#1203518095

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[syrus80 Joined: Nov 11th, 2010 Topics: 33 Posts: 527 View Predictions]

#1203518114

Terrible idea!

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[FilmRoyalty Joined: Oct 5th, 2011 Topics: 71 Posts: 3063 View Predictions]

#1203519097

This would become too political. People would cry about there not being enough women, enough men, or vice-versa.

They would so be upset if the same gender wins multiple years in a row.

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[Dan Backslide Joined: Apr 24th, 2016 Topics: 45 Posts: 3250 View Predictions]

#1203519140

wrote:

Or they can give an Honorary Award to individuals who identify as non-binary

That would also come across as offensive. People would see it as the Academy not believing in the possibility of non-binary getting nominated, and treating them like they’re different from everyone else.

As of now, there’s just no way to make this idea work. There’s too many potential elements that’ll offend people of all genders.

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