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Posted by: Conderella 5th February 2017, 06:51 PM

I have been thinking about it recently and I don't seem to get the logic between making them separate these days. It's not sports and definitely not toilets (but even for the latter some establishments are ahead of the pack) so why separate them just to follow tradition. Surely male and female roles can be compared perfectly well.

What do you think~ 📽

Posted by: Josh. 7th February 2017, 07:04 PM

I agree with you that there really is no reason to have male and female in separate categories but from a personal point of view, I like it because we get 10 nominees each and two winners. Even if it was just an all genders 'best actor' award with 10 nominees, there can still only be one winner so it would be a shame for some to miss out on that. Saying that, I do think this perhaps may need a re-think some time soon, especially the growing acceptance and frequency of people with a vast range of sexual/gender identities. I mean what are they going to do if there is a killer performance soon by someone who identifies as non-binary?

Posted by: liamk97 7th February 2017, 07:29 PM

I've thought about this a couple of times and I agree that there's not much logic in having separate categories for male and female actors. I'd like to think most people who go and watch the films see both genders equally as capable of acting, whilst combining into a category of simply "Best Actor" (or would this title need to be reconsidered?) would perhaps be a good step forward to make people within the film industry treat all actors fairly.

A part of me does like having them separate, but that's nothing to do with me thinking a combined male and female category would be an unbalanced playing field or whatever - it's more for the reason Josh gave: we get more nominations and two winners. Besides, can't it just be a little bit of harmless "boy vs. girl" fun? It doesn't necessarily have to be treated as if one gender is seen less worthy/capable of another.

Posted by: danG 7th February 2017, 07:42 PM

if there was no gender division and more men won than women there'd be cries of "OMG SEXISM!!1", I think it's best to have separate Best Male and Best Female just in the interest of fairness even though both men and women are equally capable of good acting (or singing/whatever).

Posted by: Chez Wombat 7th February 2017, 08:39 PM

I feel like while this would definitely make sense and would definitely clear the way for trans actors, the film industry is still a male-dominated industry and isn't quite at the point where it would be a level playing field. Look at the ungendered categories like Best Director and the absence of women there. True, there are probably more women in acting than production, but leading men still outnumber leading women in top grossing films massively. There could be even less representation for women at the Oscars.

I hope we'll get to the point where this will happen, but atm Hollywood's not there yet, and I feel like both sexes being acknowledged equally albeit in separate categories is a somewhat happy medium. I mean it's the same in sport.

Posted by: Harve 7th February 2017, 09:57 PM

Hollywood cinema is extremely male-dominated. I'd be all for removing the gender division in an ideal world, but not while women are still so rarely the focus.

Posted by: James' Guitar 8th February 2017, 08:41 AM

I think it's more of the type of characters they can play.

Posted by: Conderella 8th February 2017, 09:19 AM

While I agree, females have been the focus much more lately. Look at all of the popular franchises for example. Granted, they are not exactly award-worthy but surely it's better to put females in the centre of mainstream trash to make the audience get used to it. Things are changing quite rapidly. I don't think that nowadays people refuse to go to the cinema based on the fact a female is starring in it. It would be quite sad.