Bella Ramsay gave a heartbreakingly genuine and visceral performance in the HBO TV adaptation of The Last of Us. It would be a crime if this performance was snubbed by the Emmys, the biggest award show for television, and in most circumstances, there would be no contention around the situation. Bella Ramsay is non-binary and acting awards for the Emmys, as well as most award shows, have gender separated acting categories. Ramsay was forced to choose between submitting themself for Emmy consideration under a gender they didn’t identify with, or pulling out of awards consideration altogether. The decision they made was the former, and they were nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the 2023 Emmy Awards.

I think this situation perfectly encapsulates my main problem with gendered categories in award shows in the modern era. Another situation similar to Ramsay’s, is when Justin David Sullivan, a non-binary actor, starred in the Broadway musical & Juliet. Their performance was heavily praised in reviews for the musical, and whenever the rest of the cast began submitting themselves for Tony consideration, the biggest award show for musicals and plays, Sullivan elected to not submit themselves for consideration, as the Tonys, like almost every other award show, also uses gender separated categories, and Sullivan did not feel comfortable being nominated under a gender that they did not identity with.

And what is even the point of having gendered categories? What is the difference between what is being judged? They are judging the same thing. Acting. These should follow the same judging guidelines ,regardless of gender. The Oscars have separated categories for completely original screenplays and screenplays adapted from something, and I understand that, because there are different processes that go into writing the different kinds of screenplays. You’re not judging anything different between Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. It feels nonsensical to have the actors separated by gender like this. The Oscars don’t have directors separated by gender, so why should acting categories be gendered? It feels like a weird thing from old sexist Hollywood that it is for some reason still around.

There is a simple solution to these problems. Award shows should stop separating acting categories by gender, and should instate genderless categories. I say the Lead Actor and Actress categories should be combined at the Oscars, and instead of five nominations per category, the category gets ten nominations. Same for the supporting acting categories.

The main argument against genderless categories at award shows is that the majority of the nominations would be men. I think this is a really odd argument, because 1.that’s just a really weird assumption to make, and 2.if you look at any award shows that have eliminated gendered categories, such as the Independent Spirit Awards and the British Independent Film Awards, there are more often more nominations for women than there are more nominations for men in acting categories.

Gendered categories at award shows separate genders for no good reason and alienate already wrongfully oppressed minorities. This problem has a very simple solution to it, and I really hope that solution is enacted in the near future at awards shows around the world.