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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Gender neutral nominated for best female comedy performance??

27 replies

TheAverageJoanne · 28/12/2023 14:51

I saw this on Wikipedia:

Mae Pearl Martin (born 2 May 1987) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and screenwriter. They co-created, co-wrote and starred in the Channel 4/Netflix comedy series Feel Good. They received a nomination for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for their work on Feel Good.

Is this person gender neutral or female? If the former how can they be nominated for an award that's for women only? Yes I know they're technically a woman.

OP posts:
PaperWalkAndTalk · 28/12/2023 14:59

She is female and her real surname is Chatto. So she's hiding the massive amount of privilege that she has.

NoBinturongsHereMate · 28/12/2023 15:14

I believe she only recently became they, so perhaps the nomination (or performance) pre-date the shift?

Imicola · 28/12/2023 15:16

I thought Feel Good was bizarre. Her character, which was presumably based on her own life, seemed to feel pressurised into identifying as non binary because other people couldn't see her as a woman and just assumed otherwise. It just highlighted all the sexist stereotypes that gender ideology seems to internalise.

Cookerhood · 28/12/2023 15:17

NoBinturongsHereMate · 28/12/2023 15:14

I believe she only recently became they, so perhaps the nomination (or performance) pre-date the shift?

2021

SecondUsername4me · 28/12/2023 15:17

Well, she is female, so why isn't she able to be nominated under the female category? Whether she chooses to go by she/her/they/him/it/dogsbody is irrelevant, it's a category for females and she is. So that's where she would be represented.

Whilst I think woman= adult human female, and Mae likely has a much broader definition of the word woman, the category is "female". And she is.

SilverRingahBells · 28/12/2023 15:24

PaperWalkAndTalk · 28/12/2023 14:59

She is female and her real surname is Chatto. So she's hiding the massive amount of privilege that she has.

To be fair, Mae's father's surname is Chatto, who are an influential and well-connected family, but that doesn't necessarily make that Mae's "real surname". Lots of women give their children their surname nowadays.

SecondUsername4me · 28/12/2023 15:28

SilverRingahBells · 28/12/2023 15:24

To be fair, Mae's father's surname is Chatto, who are an influential and well-connected family, but that doesn't necessarily make that Mae's "real surname". Lots of women give their children their surname nowadays.

Her mother's surname is Martin. So she has the same name as her mother (wish more women would do this!)

ErrolTheRednosedDragon · 28/12/2023 15:32

Is this person gender neutral or female?

Sounds like gender neutral female, as opposed to a 'gender neutral' male. Perfectly fine to win the sex-specific award. It'd also be fine for a transman to win a female comedy award though they might not want to.

What isn't ok is if some one who is not female is given a female award, be it a 'gender neutral' or 'nonbinary' male, or a transwoman.

PaperWalkAndTalk · 28/12/2023 15:36

SilverRingahBells · 28/12/2023 15:24

To be fair, Mae's father's surname is Chatto, who are an influential and well-connected family, but that doesn't necessarily make that Mae's "real surname". Lots of women give their children their surname nowadays.

Doesn't really matter if it's her real or stage surname. The point is that she is from an incredibly privileged family and the use of a non-binary identity is a way to hide her privilege and to claim victimisation by being part of the "oppressed minority".

Peasand · 28/12/2023 15:36

She has a funny R4 short series, where I believe that she is female

donquixotedelamancha · 28/12/2023 15:49

Imicola · 28/12/2023 15:16

I thought Feel Good was bizarre. Her character, which was presumably based on her own life, seemed to feel pressurised into identifying as non binary because other people couldn't see her as a woman and just assumed otherwise. It just highlighted all the sexist stereotypes that gender ideology seems to internalise.

From her early stand-up, I think there is a lot of truth to that. She talked about everyone assumed she was lesbian. It must be difficult for those who are GNC in Canada.

As PPs have said, nothing wrong with women wining this prize, however they describe themselves.

PP is dead right about her being from a very privileged background- her uncle married into the RF.

Froodwithatowel · 28/12/2023 15:58

She's actually female however she chooses to term herself, good for her winning the female category.

Snapperwhipper · 28/12/2023 16:11

Another one living an Internet-induced existential crisis by denying her womanhood to escape past trauma and family privilege. Tragic. I think she's even had surgery.

Watching her series of Taskmaster is a chore. Referring to a woman as "they" all the time is excruciating. The massive sense of entitlement you'd need to have to want other speakers of English to bend language for such stupid whims!

FlirtsWithRhinos · 28/12/2023 16:12

This does make me angry.

Not because this person doesn't qualify for the female category - of course they do! - but because in accepting the award, it lays bare the sexist heart of then9n-binary identity.

Because if this person entirely understands that they are female and yet also considers themself non-binary, it implies they believe all those other female people, the boring ones who aren't non binary, actively chose and identify with the sexist bollocks that society lays on top of womanhood. Because otherwise those women would also be non-binary, wouldn't they?

It's just so fucking sexist and small minded. First, make the unwarranted jump that womanhood is a personality trait not a sex class. Then, insist your meaning supercedes everyone else's. Finally, force everyone to redefine themselves under your new rules just to continue to be who they already were under the old meaning of woman.

MadeOfAllWork · 28/12/2023 16:18

She does qualify for the award, by being female. But I wonder if she should have rejected it due to not identifying as female.

Interesting that she is of the Chatto family, I had no idea. Her uncle is married to Princess Margaret’s daughter.

LoobyDop · 28/12/2023 16:28

SecondUsername4me · 28/12/2023 15:17

Well, she is female, so why isn't she able to be nominated under the female category? Whether she chooses to go by she/her/they/him/it/dogsbody is irrelevant, it's a category for females and she is. So that's where she would be represented.

Whilst I think woman= adult human female, and Mae likely has a much broader definition of the word woman, the category is "female". And she is.

She’s female, but I think anyone who tries to pretend she isn’t a woman should be ruled out of awards specifically for women on the grounds that they’re awful role models. We should celebrate women who celebrate and promote women, not those who treat our sex as a flaw to be corrected.

ErrolTheRednosedDragon · 28/12/2023 17:37

She’s female, but I think anyone who tries to pretend she isn’t a woman should be ruled out of awards specifically for women on the grounds that they’re awful role models. We should celebrate women who celebrate and promote women, not those who treat our sex as a flaw to be corrected.

I see your point. The thing is, being 'gender critical' , I can't too much blame people for wanting to be rid of gender (though of course much better to do it properly and try to bin those regressive shackles for everyone). But it's sad that they - and it generally seems to be the female rather than the males - seem to feel the need to de-sex themselves.

nepeta · 28/12/2023 18:40

FlirtsWithRhinos · 28/12/2023 16:12

This does make me angry.

Not because this person doesn't qualify for the female category - of course they do! - but because in accepting the award, it lays bare the sexist heart of then9n-binary identity.

Because if this person entirely understands that they are female and yet also considers themself non-binary, it implies they believe all those other female people, the boring ones who aren't non binary, actively chose and identify with the sexist bollocks that society lays on top of womanhood. Because otherwise those women would also be non-binary, wouldn't they?

It's just so fucking sexist and small minded. First, make the unwarranted jump that womanhood is a personality trait not a sex class. Then, insist your meaning supercedes everyone else's. Finally, force everyone to redefine themselves under your new rules just to continue to be who they already were under the old meaning of woman.

Yes, the heart of the gender identity movement IS deeply sexist, even misogynist.

Adding nonbinary to 'men' and 'women' as the categories inherently implies, given that there is no nonbinary sex category in humans, that now both 'men' and 'women' are also definitions based not on sex but on gender stereotypes.

So in order to be 'inclusive' and 'kind' to enbies, all others are ordered to view themselves as defined by sexist beliefs about femininity or masculinity and/or supposed comfort with retrogressive gender roles.

This is NOT inclusive or kind to us.

And it is almost as anti-feminist as the far right anti-feminist beliefs, because both expect 'women' to follow stereotypical retrogressive cultural rules, and it is those rules which sexism has always used to subjugate the female sex class.

The gender identitarians seem to expect us women to transition to, say, nonbinary, should we actually wish for equal treatment, but neither sexism nor misogyny are going to check for someone's preferred nonbinary pronouns before picking their prey. All they care about is based on sex.

And this makes the gender identity ideology deeply sexist, because the actual fee for being treated somewhat equally would have to be a full medical transition into a passing trans man.

GothConversionTherapy · 28/12/2023 21:06

Unless there's a third category, yes this is the one that's fair, just as if tommy dorfman was nominated for an award (as if) they should be in the male category if no third space.

DrBlackbird · 29/12/2023 01:07

She may come from a privileged family, but they certainly sounded very messed up. Mae went on the Canadian stand up circuit very young and became addicted to drugs and was massively sexually exploited. To me, she seems indicative of that traumatised female running from the trauma by pretending they’re no longer female by declaring themselves NB. Sadly, Mae also has had a double mastectomy. She started Feel Good in 2020, so if the bafta nomination was for the first season it may have been prior to identifying as NB in 2021. If, however, it was after, then Mae should have declined the nomination. IMO, it’s dishonest to deny being female and simultaneously accept a nomination in the female category.

MadeOfAllWork · 29/12/2023 10:39

DrBlackbird · 29/12/2023 01:07

She may come from a privileged family, but they certainly sounded very messed up. Mae went on the Canadian stand up circuit very young and became addicted to drugs and was massively sexually exploited. To me, she seems indicative of that traumatised female running from the trauma by pretending they’re no longer female by declaring themselves NB. Sadly, Mae also has had a double mastectomy. She started Feel Good in 2020, so if the bafta nomination was for the first season it may have been prior to identifying as NB in 2021. If, however, it was after, then Mae should have declined the nomination. IMO, it’s dishonest to deny being female and simultaneously accept a nomination in the female category.

I had no idea about all that going on in their past. And yes, even someone from a privileged background can have an extremely fucked up life.

It always strikes me how many women and girls who identify as male or NB have a history of abuse.

FrippEnos · 29/12/2023 15:34

Surely if she were to stand by her principles she would turn the award down.

JanesLittleGirl · 29/12/2023 16:07

"I am neither a woman nor a man."
"Oh, a Best Woman award. For me? How sweet! Don't mind if I do."

Only slightly cakeist.

NickEccles · 21/01/2025 21:08

All very peculiar to me the whole thing.......why have breasts removed? Seems to be attention seeking to me.....

duc748 · 22/01/2025 19:35

Seems to me the main thing many NB people want to assert is "I am much cooler than yew, with your old-fashioned gender norms".

(yes, I know! As Flirts skewers upthread)

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