Transwoman nominated for Best Female Solo Artist at Brits

[roseshippy]

Anohni, formerly Antony of Antony & The Johnsons, has a previous nomination as best Male:

www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/brit-awards-2017-anohni-nominated-9622973

[RacoonBandit]

Oh joy. So an award aimed at women could go to a man.

Words fail me.

[Beachcomber]

And whether he wins or not, one less woman has been nominated. Being nominated is quite a big deal in and of itself.

[MrsJamin]

Ugh. So bloody maddening. He's not a woman and shouldn't be eligible for that award.

[QueenLaBeefah]

This is just so depressing.

[ChocChocPorridge]

Intresting how traswomen often recieve womens awards yet transmen are not recieving male awards.

Clearly it's just that men are better. Better at being men, better at being women, just all round more wonderful and we should just get back in the kitchen and make dinner, look after the kids, and tidy up.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

This particular artist is not a 'new' bandwagon jumper as it were. I believe the process was being undergone during the Antony and the Johnsons days.
I genuinely feel it is different of someone is transitioning or if it is just self-identifying.
Quite frankly some years nominees in both male and female for the Brits have been absolute shite anyway. What album would you want in its place?
Music isn't the same as sport. Unless we're talking about castratti men don't have an inherent technical advantage over women. I personally feel there are born female acts who are more damaging to notion of 'what is woman' than this particular artist.
I agree with the concept that there is something odd going on with the 'transing' of non-conforming children, but we're not dealing with a TRA here. It's definitely not as simple an issue as the TRAs would have it but nor is at as simple as some on the Feminist pages here would have it. I know some of you will think that I should turn in my feminist badge but believe I have thought my opinion through and I just happen to disagree with you.

[ChocChocPorridge]

She has identified as transgender since childhood but “cowardice and shame” prevented her from asking people to call her “she”. “‘She’ used to make my skin crawl,” she says now. “Within a gay context it can be used very snidely: to contain trans people and to denigrate other men. But working and socialising with women, and doing [campaign group] Future Feminism, empowered me in the feminine, and I could accept that it was OK to be the way I am. But I don’t feel emphatically female, it’s more subtle than that.”

from Guardian

I do find it offensive that being 'she' is seen as shameful, used to denigrate. I do find it unfair, that despite 'not feeling emphatically female' and despite being male, the nominating committee of the Brits has seen fit to nominate them in the women's category.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

She has a point though. In the gay community, historically, 'she' was used to denigrate feminine gay men by some.

[JigglyTuff]

Yes it was. But rather than fighting that, it's much easier to just occupy women's space because no one needs to listen to us.

[QueenLaBeefah]

They are our new female overlords and we must bow down to them. We can stick to the drudgery and they will have the awards, well paid jobs and sparkly frocks.

[Beachcomber]

I personally feel there are born female acts who are more damaging to notion of 'what is woman' than this particular artist.



What because they are expected to wear hardly any clothes and act sexy? And lots of them do. Because sexism.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

No. Not because they're 'sexy'. I don't like that myself but that's irrelevantly. My problem with today's girl groups is they show one way to be a girl with slightly different haircuts. At least the Spice Girls didn't do that.

[ChocChocPorridge]

I'm not sure that being male is another way to be a girl......

In fact, yes I am, being an adult male, is emphatically not showing another way to be a girl (or a woman).

[Beachcomber]

Right, the marketing concept behind the Spice Girls was that not only their haircuts were different but their body type and made up character were too.

The music industry is very sexist. "They all look the same" female bands come from the same brand of sexism as "they all look a bit different, which one would you fuck" female bands.

[lionheart]

I like the music a lot (incredible vocals) but suspect the nomination is more about the politics of embracing a transagenda--or being seen to embrace it, than anything else.

[roseshippy]

"This particular artist is not a 'new' bandwagon jumper as it were. I believe the process was being undergone during the Antony and the Johnsons days."

Not quite. In 2012

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/antony-hegarty-it-takes-nerve-to-get-through-your-sense-of-shame-on-stage-7939045.html

" he cautions. "Especially because my situation is ambiguous because I haven't transitioned from male to female. My experience as a transgender person has been to become comfortable expressing my sense of difference within the identity of being trans. For a lot of people, that's not their experience at all. They don't want to be trans, they want to be the opposite sex."

So he wanted then to be 'trans', in the middle, more male than female. Now he has decided he is a woman and wants women's awards.

[Twogoats]

The Brit Awards always tries to be on-trend, which is part of the reason they have been nominated.

She's the only one of the list I've never heard of.

Plus, if she's in a band, then why is she nominated as a solo artist?

[ErrolTheDragon]

Wouldn't it have been better for the nominating committee to put her up for the man's award again - the 'expanding the boundaries of your own sex' idea?

[hazeyjane]

Ah fuck it I can't be bothered to try to be eloquent any more.

Jesusfreakingfuckingshiteburgers to this wankfest.

Ah, that's better.

[SpeakNoWords]

Anohni used to be the lead singer of Anthony and the Johnsons but has been a solo artist for a while now.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Anohni used to be the lead singer of Anthony and the Johnsons but has been a solo artist for a while now

That's not really what it was. Anthony and the Johnsons was the name used but there wasn't a band in the traditional Beatles/Oasis sense.

The Johnsons were a changing group of (excellent) studio and touring sessions musicians. The sole creative input came from Antony Hegarty. "Antony and the Johnsons " was always a solo artist.

[SpeakNoWords]

I defer to your greater knowledge Lass, I was only speaking from my hazy recollection of the "band".

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

To be fair to Antony/Anohni gender issues/ transgender identity has been a major theme in all their work since the first album.

The Antony and the Johnsons' material is stunning. I walked out of an Anohni performance- nothing to do with transgender issues- just hated the new musical style.

[JigglyTuff]

I'm very happy for them to explore gender issues. But they are a man and should still be in the male category.