Brits get rid of separate male & female awards

[Theeyeballsinthesky]

From next year it will be an award for best artist.

Be interesting to see how the winners go…..

More eradication of women

The benefit of this is?

Now if all men and all “trans women “ win then we will know something won’t we?

The reason the female section was created was because the awards would otherwise be dominated by men. Let’s see how this goes now 😎

That just halves the number of “best” awards though? Seems strange and reduces selling opportunities for musicians that win/ get nominated as fewer will.

@sashagabadon

That just halves the number of “best” awards though? Seems strange and reduces selling opportunities for musicians that win/ get nominated as fewer will.

They’ve added more awards by creating new categories like pop, grime etc

Men men men men men men men men men.

That's what it'll be.

Upsides:

It will be shorter
It won't take long for a pattern to emerge if there is one
It might spur a few female artists to feel a bit hard done to and critically think about why they may be at a disadvantage

In which case I hope the Oscars, Emmys, BAFTAs and golden globes etc etc follow suit

I expect that this year they’ll make an effort to give women some awards but over time it’s obvious what will happen.

@Theeyeballsinthesky

From next year it will be an award for best artist.

Be interesting to see how the winners go…..

Like the Grammys. Changed what 13 years ago? Had male and female awards until then, now IIRC female winners in the new, "gender-neutral" and totally fair and progressive categories are down from half and half to about 1 in 10.

Or they’ll alternate- which just means half as mean people get to be ‘best artist’ - new categories don’t make for this.

Or it’ll be all men but some of them in drag.

If this is the way awards are going just to be more inclusive of the few artists who identify as non binary then the world is truly going mad. Female only categories are necessary in most walks of life to support females in a male driven world. This is crazy. Stop the world I want to get off.

Fortuitously Adele will probably sweep the board, but it’s still a rubbish idea

Does any know the history of the Brits? Did it used to be neutral then split as it's male dominated?

I hate this too and the implications for female artists - but genuine question, is there a way that women can be a 'forced focus' without discriminating against anyone who doesn't ID as male or female??

I know that this move negatively impacts a much bigger number of artists (women) than it helps (NBs / trans) but equally, I'm not 100%
comfortable with the alternative of just accepting that some artists would be automatically excluded as they wouldn't fit the 'male' or 'female' award.

I'm genuinely looking for an alternative approach.

They’ll have to come up with some eminently patronising ‘honourable mention’ or ‘good try’ award that can be shoehorned in to show some diversity.

Another great stride towards ensuring males dominate once more

Just heard this reported on ITV News, the poor presenter slipped up on the pronouns which has already been picked up on Twitter...

"The Brits Academy have been under pressure from musicians including Sam Smith, a former winner, who'd argued the current categories excluded non binary artists like him, those who identify as neither male nor female."

@onceagainaspredicted

Just heard this reported on ITV News, the poor presenter slipped up on the pronouns which has already been picked up on Twitter...

"The Brits Academy have been under pressure from musicians including Sam Smith, a former winner, who'd argued the current categories excluded non binary artists like him, those who identify as neither male nor female."

Yes as a white male i bet he faces so much more discrimination daily than anybody else ever did.

Christ. Like the music industry isn’t already one of the most rampantly misogynistic that I can think of. I mean, of course they would do this.

BBC news also reported that this was done at Sam Smith's behest.

What influence Sam has!

The Dutch have already done this for film and TV awards and guess what not one single woman won

I heard this on the bbc. They said it was to include non-binary and not to base it on the gender artists 'identify' with.
They then said Grammys have done this for 12 years and so far awards have been 50-50. 50% for male 50% for female. That means zero awards in 12 years for people identifying as non-binary.
Woke but not woke to justify woke.
Confused? I am!

This is from the BBC article about this:

Artists like Sam Smith and Will Young had previously called for the change, saying the current system excludes non-binary artists.

Smith, who is non-binary, missed out on a nomination at this year's awards.

Their album, Love Goes, reached number two in the UK chart, but they felt unable to enter the gender-based categories.

Do people really believe that if someone identifies as non-binary it means that they no longer have a sex?

All you have to do is look at last year's Brit Awards mixed-sex categories. There was 25 where men or women could have been nominated or won. Only in one of them was a woman nominated.

Here's an up-to-date analysis on the Grammys, annenberg.usc.edu/news/research-and-impact/annenberg-inclusion-initiatives-annual-report-popular-music-reveals-little

It goes into some detail to explain why women are underrepresented both in the music industry as a whole and in nominations. Unless there are dedicated categories for female musicians, this is just going to keep on happening.

We could have a legitimate discussion about the pros and cons of positive action, where you have all-women shortlists for an election, because that directly (but lawfully) discriminates against male candidates.

But award categories split into best male and female do not discriminate in any way. Sam Smith was nominated last year in one of those mixed-sex categories, and chose to forgo a nomination in the male category. That's not discrimination.

In my view, a non-binary identification is an expression of a personal belief in an ideology. No Brit award category reflects beliefs. There are a few, select male and female categories because otherwise women are rarely nominated. And if women are not nominated, they have less chance of winning.

Their album, Love Goes, reached number two in the UK chart, but they felt unable to enter the gender-based categories.

It's a sex based category, Sam, not gender based. Poor Sam, so hard done by but somehow has enough clout to influence far reaching decisions.