Jameela Jamil Proposes Non-Binary People Get Their Own Category At Award Shows
Jameela Jamil - Jared Siskin
British actress, activist, podcaster, and television host Jameela Jamil is weighing in on award shows having gender-neutral categories and proposes people who identify as non-binary get their own category to not, quote, “completely shut out women.”
In a statement on Instagram, Jamil expresses her opinion on the matter, reasoning, “Would it not be better to give non-binary people their own category rather than open the door for Hollywood to completely shut out women given the known disproportionate amount of men vs women winning at award shows?” She adds, “If we now have enough non-binary talent to restructure entire award shows, which is great, then we should add rather than run the accidental risk of erasing, no? I say this as an audience member because I am not going to be nominated for an Oscar anyway.”
The actress clarified in the Instagram caption that her sentiment comes as, in her words, “the Oscars looking to get rid of gendered acting awards. As we see with the director award, which is genderless, it’s rare to even see a woman nominated never mind win…” She continued, “I want to open more doors and create more tables, not narrow the opportunities for everyone, including GNC [gender non-conforming] people.”
Award shows like the Independent Spirit Awards and the British Independent Film Awards have already shifted to gender-neutral categories, something that MTV has been doing for years in both their VMAs and Film & TV Awards shows. Jamil acknowledges that this disparity exists and believes a growing ire from women will be the result of getting shut out of award opportunities because, “we have created only one spot for a winner amongst 10s of thousands of actors, in a world that favors men.”
Jamil believes actions like these won’t help women or non-binary individuals since it minimizes the number of potential winners. In closing, Jamil is of the opinion that “We should look to EXPAND the possibilities so that both GNC people and women have a fair shot in an industry that has for a long time struggled to treat others equals to men.”