Though MTV’s decision to create a “genderless” acting award was made for the wrong reasons, the effect of assessing male and female actors together is neither objectionable nor brave and groundbreaking.
It’s no surprise to hear the MTV Movie Awards eliminated its gendered award categories in the name of recognizing people who do not identify as men or women, like “nonbinary” actor Asia Kate Dillon who presented Emma Watson with the Best Actor Award on Sunday.
“Great acting is great acting, no matter what the gender or nongender,” MTV general manager Amy Doyle told the Hollywood Reporter. She also said the decision was made in response to MTV’s audience “uniformly rejecting obsolete labels and embracing fluidity.”
Doyle should have stopped at “great acting is great acting, no matter what the gender.”
That statement is true.
But the rhetoric about “fluidity” and “nongender” is nothing less than fodder for the young progressives MTV wants to rope into watching its programs. It’s pseudo-intellectual nonsense that downplays the critical role biological sex plays in our lives and should not be encouraged.
On the other hand, acting is not the same as playing sports. Sex does not meaningfully determine one’s ability to succeed at the highest levels of the craft. Any actress has the physical and mental ability to perform as well as her male counterparts.
Most companies that have an employee of the month don’t feel the need to pick a male and female employee each month. Nor do they strut and claim some sort of cultural enlightenment when they give out only one award regardless of gender. Maybe the Pulitzer committee could get some culture war chits if it started declaring its prizes “genderless.”
It is not as though the Oscars segregate male and female screenwriters or directors or composers. If men and women are equals, women should leap at the opportunity to be considered as much wherever it is fair and appropriate.
More “genderless” awards could result in less recognition for female actresses, something I doubt advocates of the trend fully realize, but that’s okay.
While women around the world face oppression American women have and will never confront, whether wealthy male and female actors are treated equally at lavish award ceremonies is not a serious battle to wage. But it’s a reminder that — like the proverbial broken clock — even feminists are right twice a day.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
