Gender-neutral awards were supposed to make things fairer, a bit like the new off-field video assistant referee in football. And, just like VAR, some argue that they’ve levelled the playing field. Others think they’re destroying the game. A few may simply wish to celebrate their wins without turning round to check if a man with a computer says it’s OK. Whatever your view, the topic is everywhere in this year’s testy awards season; last weekend’s Brit and WhatsOnStage Awards both implemented categories without gender distinctions, with results that were lambasted and lauded respectively. But for an idea that’s about looking beyond the binary, the conversation so far has focused very much on winners and nominees whose gender identity corresponds with the sex registered for them at birth (otherwise known as cisgender). Surely that shows the real issue: the creative industries are trying to run before they can walk when it comes to thinking more expansively.
Noticeably, many deemed the WhatsOnStage Awards – the first theatre ceremony to go gender-neutral – a great success, with the top four acting prizes going to women (last year it gave awards for “female-identifying” and “male-identifying” roles). Jodie Comer won the Best Performer award for Prima Facie, a blistering monologue about a barrister who is sexually assaulted, while Legally Blonde star Courtney Bowman, Wicked performer Lucie Jones and To Kill a Mockingbird’s Gwyneth Keyworth also triumphed. This was in direct contrast to the Brit Awards, which, after making its Artist of the Year category gender-neutral last year, ended up with a men-only shortlist. It was an outcome that made a reality of the fear that such a move would leave women shut out. The eventual winner, Harry Styles, dedicated his award to the female pop stars, from Florence Welch to Charli XCX, who had missed out on a place in the category.
