Last month Emma Corrin, a
non-binary actor best known for playing Diana on Season 4 of The Crown, added
their voice to the argument that awards shows should give gender neutral
categories for acting. Some actors and actress, such as Melanie Lynskey, have
said they were fine with this as a concept.
I mentioned last week that the Spirit Awards are following this method
for 2023, and earlier this week The Gotham Awards followed suit.
Since this idea was
floated last year, I have been a vehement opponent of this idea. I have used
the argument that these kinds of awards, particularly when they pertain to
television, will end up isolate more people than they will end up rewarded,
mainly African-American Actors and Actress, and indeed, actresses in general. I’ve
also argued that considered all of the barriers that transgender and non-binary
people are facing in every walk of life, the idea that somehow making gender-neutral
awards just so that certain people can consider themselves ‘allies’ while an
entire industry does nothing for the LGBTQ+ community to work at all in any
aspect of it, is the definition of tokenism: the kind of thing a billionaire
corporation does when it names an African-American or a woman to a minor
position in their company to set aside arguments of prejudice in their hiring
practices.
But I’m fundamentally
aware that in an argument involving an issue that stirs up passion, trying to
use logic when words like ‘fairness’ and ‘equality’ are bandied about makes
little difference. I also know that even coming up with evidence that this is a
folly may not make much of a difference. Nevertheless, considering that I
actually have proof of an awards show that has been carried out these gender neutral
kinds of awards, decades before it was considered an issue, I think it’s trying to make
this argument again particularly as we are now nearing the end-of-year award
season where the issue will now doubt come up ad infinitum. So journey back
with me as I take you back to the 1980s.
Those of you who have read
this column for a very long time (or even not that long) are aware that ever
since I started covering the Emmys, I have been analyzing and every other award
show that gives out awards for television and that I have spent years scouring
the internet looking for awards for television. Relatively recently in my
perusals (if I had to guess, probably 2018) I discovered the Television Critics
Awards and was immediately inclined to approve of them because that year they
had not fallen under the sway of Game of Thrones and had given their
Best Drama prize – and their show of the year prize – for The Americans, a
series that is one of the greatest ever made. I was even more encouraged when I
saw they had given their Best Comedy prize to The Good Place and had
basically ignored Veep. I was thrilled
to see that Keri Russell and Rachel Brosnahan had won acting awards but I don’t
think I paid any attention or even looked to see who they’d defeated to win
their prizes. I was just thrilled and proud of my profession.
It was not until the
following year that I learned that they had been in existence sine 1985 and had
been giving awards in drama, comedy, and other series ever since. They have
been from the start among the most diverse and versatile award shows in
history, giving prizes to dramas that never won the grand prize such as Twin
Peaks, I’ll Fly Away, Homicide (three years running!) and My So-Called
Life. When Peak TV began with the 21st century, they got on board
quickly: The Sopranos won Best Drama for its rookie year, something it
would take the Emmys five seasons to acknowledge. (It won twice more and tied
with The West Wing one year.) Other shows that never won but that at the
TCA included The Good Wife, Six Feet Under and Better Call Saul (so
far).The Americans actually won three times overall. Nor have the TCA
ignored other worthy series in their nominations with they have slowly but
surely expanded. Here are just a handful of the series they nominated that never
got any Best Drama nominations from the Emmys: Homefront, Freaks and Geeks (!)
Once and Again, The Shield, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, UnREAL, The Good Fight, Homecoming. And those are
just the dramas.
For comedy they’ve been
somewhat more traditional, but they did give Best Comedy to The Larry
Sanders Show (two years running) Sports
Night, The Bernie Mac Show and Inside Amy Schumer. Their track
record when it comes to nominating series that the Emmy ignores is better: Scrubs
which was almost completely ignored by the Emmys got nominated multiple
times, as did Flight of the Conchords, My Name is Earl, Community, Party
Down, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mindy Project, Better Things, Jane
the Virgin, Superstore and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.
Now I’ve highlighted these
categories specifically because, like many awards shows, the TCA has been a
work in progress. They have a category called Program of the Year which can
cover a multitude of shows: it has covered documentaries (Eyes on the Prize,
The Civil War) it has covered mini-series and TV movies (Barbarians at
the Gate, Lonesome Dove, Angels in America) and it can cover the shows that
might be nominated in Drama or Comedy, but could be phenomena in their own
right (Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy in 2005, Desperate Housewives in
2004, Glee in 2010) Sometimes their great shows that haven’t earned recognition
for some reason: (the cult show EZ Streets in 1996, Battlestar
Galactica in 2008, Empire in 2015). And sometimes they’re truly
great series that have broken on in a big way: Mad Men in 2007, Breaking
Bad in 2012 and 2013. Sometimes they do intersect – last year, Abbott
Elementary took Best Comedy and Program of the Year. No argument there.
They also have the Movie, Miniseries and special category which
has run the gamut from Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars to Ken Burns’ Baseball
to Sherlock . In recent years limited series have begun to dominate,
such as American Crime Story, Big Little Lies and Watchmen. (For the record, Downton Abbey always
fell under this category. Go figure.)
And then in 1996, they finally
began acting awards: one for comedy, one for drama. They not only have never
differentiated by gender, but they also haven’t differentiated between lead and
supporting. And if you ever wanted an example of just how badly this can go:
the TCA acting nominations are Peoples Exhibit A. Let’s start with Drama.
The first two years of
their acting award for Drama: there was one female nominee: Gillian Anderson
for The X-Files. That’s it. No one from ER or The Practice, no one from Relativity or Murder. Hell
in 1997, Gillian Anderson was set aside for Kevin Anderson from Nothing Sacred.
I think the critics may
have learned their lesson because more and more female nominees began to show
up over the next few years: Camryn Manheim for The Practice, Allison
Janney for The West Wing. They also did a good job recognizing many
actresses that never got their due from the Academy: Sarah Michelle Gellar,
Lauren Graham. Do you want to know the first year they recognized a female for
Best Acting in Drama: 2002-2003. Edie Falco for The Sopranos. I guess they decided that James
Gandolfini, who’d won three consecutive years had won enough.
Would you like to know when
the next actress won in that category: 2009-2010. Juliana Margulies for The
Good Wife. So in the first fifteen years of a purely gender neutral acting
category, there were exactly two female winners. I guess that’s what fair and balanced looks
like.
I am not shocked by this.
Indeed, I made exactly this argument when I put forth what would happen if a
gender-neutral acting category had existed in this period. The age of the
antihero complete shut out any great female performance. Don’t get me wrong,
Ian McShane deserved to win for Deadwood and Michael C. Hall did for Dexter
and I’ll admit to being glad to see that Hugh Laurie took two prizes. But
this came at the expense of every other female performer who was acting dramas.
And its not like their was a shortage of good actresses. Among the
nominees, along with the ones I listed were Jennifer Garner, Rachel Griffiths,
Connie Britton, Kyra Sedgwick (for The Closer) and Glenn Close who
during this period was winning two Emmys for Best Actress against the likes of
Elisabeth Moss, Holly Hunter, and Sally Field. Almost all of these actresses
were winning awards left and right during the award season. Many of them couldn’t
even get into the balloting of the TCA because of all the difficult men.
Now to be fair, there has
been some movement in the right direction in the last decade. Claire Danes and
Tatiana Maslany took Best Actress prizes, so did Sarah Paulson, and the TCA was
willing to recognize Carrie Coon for both Fargo and The Leftovers. Furthermore,
they also acknowledged women of color, including Regina King and Michaela Coel.
And they saw the wisdom of giving their top prize to Mandy Moore. Which I admit
is incredible, but by now of course you see the larger issue that all of these
prizes are going to lead actors and not supporting. Supporting actors have
gotten nominated, but not once has the TCA given an acting prize in a Drama to
a supporting role. That’s an argument for another day, however.
So, do things get any better
when we go to comedy? The answer is slightly, but not much. At least, the TCA
gave its first prize for a female performer in a comedy a little earlier than
they did for drama: 1999 and 2000 to Jane Kaczmarek for Malcolm in the
Middle. (She never won an Emmy. Sacrilege.) Then there’s a similar gap for
the next time a female performer wins and that’s 2008 when Tina Fey won for 30
Rock. (Maybe there should be an asterisk; I don’t know how much credit
creating and writing the show added to it)
To be clear the last
decade has basically all about the women.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus won(quelle surprise) but then its been a different
woman every year: Amy Schumer, Rachel Bloom (yea!) Rachel Brosnahan, Phoebe
Waller-Bridge, Catherine O’Hara, Jean Smart and of course Quinta Brunson. (The
one male winner has been Donald Glover in 2016-2017. No argument there.)
That said, you really have
to question quite a few of the nominees in the early years, especially from
male over female perspective. 2000-2001: Chris Isaak gets nominated over
Patricia Heaton. Seriously? 2001-2002. No female nominees at all. Ditto
2003-2004. You couldn’t nominate Jessica Walter for Arrested Development? You
nominated the father and the son, but not the mother? Oh well.
The track record, I will
admit, is better here but to be honest, how much credit are the female nominees
getting for being the showrunners for their series. Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling,
Lena Dunham, Issa Rae, and Pamela Adlon all created their own shows. Most of the winners – Bloom, Schumer,
Waller-Bridge and Brunson – essentially created the series. Rare is the winner
in this category who merely performed in their series – though again, hard to argue
that Jean Smart or O’Hara wouldn’t have won anyway. There are a fair share of
actresses who just act – Hannah Waddingham, Kaley Cuoco, and Renee Elise Goldsberry were all nominated last
year, for example and overall in most of the categories over the last decade
there have been more female performers than males, which is a good ratio. And
there’s a better track record with supporting performers than with drama –
David Hyde-Pierce took the first two for his work in Frasier and Jane
Lynch won for Glee – but those are the kind of performance that can’t be
looked away from. Sean Hayes and Megan Mullaly were nominated multiple times
for Will and Grace and there have been many supporting nominees among
the performers, but again, that’s a separate argument.
I could continue in this
vein for awhile and argue that this method of nomination has, as I pointed out,
led to an exclusion of African-American actors and actresses winning in any
category. Andre Braugher took the Best Actor prize in a Drama the first two
years acting awards existed. It was seven years before another African American
– Bernie Mac – took any acting prize. I could also argue that women of color
have been shut out just as much until fairly recently as well. Viola Davis didn’t
get a nomination – but that’s actually an argument the critics are doing their
job right. But I think by this point, the TCA have made their argument crystal
clear. I should also point out that having gender neutral categories has not
helped two of the most notable non-binary actors in the industry – Corrin and
Asia Kate Dillon get nominated by the TCA. And if there are no rules between
gender and supporting and lead and you still can’t get a fair shake, then clearly
taking away gender limits isn’t going to rectify the problem.
So for those of you who
really think that getting rid of gender restrictions in acting categories is
the ‘right thing to do for equality’, go to Wikipedia and look at the nominees
for acting for the TCA since 1996, and then look at who won. I imagine those
who want to be contrary will make their own arguments – systemic racism,
sexism, gender bias and of course, that old standard, critics don’t know what
they’re talking about. But the facts can’t be disputed: for the past quarter of
a century, the TCA has done exactly what you want them to do. Who were the
overwhelming beneficiaries? A bunch of middle-aged white men. Things may have
improved in the last decade in both drama and comedy, but that’s because of
systemic changes, not cosmetic ones. And to repeat (because apparently I keep
having to) that’s all gender-neutral
acting categories are.
No comments:
Post a Comment