MTV Movie & TV Awards to Drop Separate Gender Categories

Would the move help achieve gender neutrality or simply make things harder for women actors?

In a bold step towards gender neutrality, MTV Movie & TV Awards has decided that the category for Best Actor will see nominees from both genders - males and females - under a single umbrella. That is, there will be no separate categories for actors according to gender.

However, according to a report by Dawn, the category will be separate for Movie and TV nominees. While the move is commendable in some respects, it comes with issues of its own.

There are arguments from both sides of the spectrum.

Women and Hollywood’s founder and editor, Melissa Silverstein, known for advocating gender equality in the industry, says that this decision “could severely [affect] female nominees in the future.”

We already know that women are severely underrepresented in many categories – only 20 per cent of the non-acting Oscar nominees were women this year – and so if different awards events decide to remove gender identification from categories, it is incumbent upon them to work even harder to make sure a full spectrum of people are included in the nominees as well as in the selection committees.

Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor - Women and Hollywood

On the other hand, Asia Kate Dillon prefers to be called ‘actor’, due to its widespread use as a gender-neutral term.

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?

Asia Kate Dillon, Billions star

What do you think?

Source: Dawn.com

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