Are Hollywood awards by gender out of touch?
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Do Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Helen Mirren really need a category just for women to snare one of Hollywood's favorite accessories, an Oscar, Emmy or Screen Actors Guild trophy?
In a society tilting steadily toward gender neutrality, the separate-but-equal awards that divide actors into one camp and actresses into another have the whiff of a moldy anachronism.
True, the Association for Women in Science gives honors to encourage female success in male-dominated fields. But to mark enduring achievements, would its members ever yearn for a Women's Nobel Prize in physics?
In contests of intellect or artistry, should gender ever matter?
"It's not like it's upper body strength," Gloria Steinem dryly observed of the requirements of acting.
The separate labeling of male and female performers is losing favor in the industry. Actresses often swat the distinction away by calling themselves "actors," standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts.
Usherettes are long gone from movie theater lobbies, after all. And defense officials said Wednesday the Pentagon will be lifting its ban on women in combat.
SAG, which holds its awards ceremony Sunday, edged toward neutrality with its trophy dubbed the Actor, although the guild gives separate honors to best performance by a male actor and by a female actor.
That cracks the door open, but only slightly. Fling it wide so that Daniel Day-Lewis' majestic performance in "Lincoln" and Jessica Chastain's steely turn in "Zero Dark Thirty" vie for the grand prize!
"That's a great idea," said Mark Andrews, writer-director of the animated film "Brave." ''At the end of the day, we're all storytellers, and I don't think when we're defining a character that the gender is the major defining factor."
In all other awards-eligible fields, including directing, writing or cinematography, everyone is "going for it," male and female alike, Andrews said.
That may be progress in theory for performers but not in practice, according to Sally Field, a SAG and Oscar best supporting actress nominee for "Lincoln."
"If you do that you won't see any actresses up there (on stage) at all," she said. "The percentage of roles is so weighted toward actors. That's the way it's always been."
Exactly, concurred Naomi Watts, "The Impossible" best actress SAG and Academy Award nominee.
"There's so much competition in life and I do think we are different," she said. "Yes, we should be able to have the same things as much as possible ... (but) life's a battle already and there's so many great roles written for men. Women are definitely at a disadvantage when it comes to volume."
Rapper Nicki Minaj, who's considering launching an acting career, has a pragmatic take on the issue.
"You see all those divas in the audience looking so pretty, and they all want to beat each other out," she said. "It's entertainment."
Hathaway, in the running for SAG and Oscar supporting actress honors for "Les Miserables," considers the gender split "an awesome question worthy of an awesome debate."
"Can I conceive of a world where performance becomes a genderless concept? Absolutely. Do I think it's going to happen anytime soon? No," she said.
As Fields pointed out, the bedrock challenge is that women get fewer substantive roles than men. Ironically, that's obscured by the artificial parity on stage each year at awards shows. Five women compete, five men compete, two winners are crowned.
So what's the problem? A quick numbers check makes it clear: Females comprised about a third of the characters in the 100 top-grossing films in 2011, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
This, despite the fact women make up slightly more than half of the U.S. population and, according to the center's previous research, the finding isn't an anomaly.
In this context, feminist leader Steinem sees legitimate reason to retain separate acting awards. When two unequal groups are combined it's the less-powerful one that loses, she said, as when 20th-century U.S. school desegregation lead to mass layoffs of black principals and administrators.
Tom O'Neil, editor of the Gold Derby awards prediction site, said strong forces are arrayed against any such change in Hollywood.
Awards shows routinely try to add celebrity-driven categories, not drop them, to increase a show's "glamor and glitz" quotient, he said, as well as mask the industry's unequal treatment of women.
"It's criminal," he said, bluntly.
In the behind-the-scenes film and TV categories in which the sexes compete, women rarely make it on stage at awards ceremonies. The Oscars started in 1929, but it wasn't until 2010 that the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, was honored as best director (for "The Hurt Locker"). Statistics again provide clarity: Women made up a paltry 9 percent of the directors on 2012's top-grossing films, a new San Diego State University study found.
Let's give two-time Oscar winner Field the last word in this debate.
Actresses "should be in their own category because they ARE in their own category," she said. "They face their own specific kind of difficulties surviving in this business that actors, bless their hearts, don't face."
In a society tilting steadily toward gender neutrality, the separate-but-equal awards that divide actors into one camp and actresses into another have the whiff of a moldy anachronism.
True, the Association for Women in Science gives honors to encourage female success in male-dominated fields. But to mark enduring achievements, would its members ever yearn for a Women's Nobel Prize in physics?
In contests of intellect or artistry, should gender ever matter?
"It's not like it's upper body strength," Gloria Steinem dryly observed of the requirements of acting.
The separate labeling of male and female performers is losing favor in the industry. Actresses often swat the distinction away by calling themselves "actors," standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts.
Usherettes are long gone from movie theater lobbies, after all. And defense officials said Wednesday the Pentagon will be lifting its ban on women in combat.
SAG, which holds its awards ceremony Sunday, edged toward neutrality with its trophy dubbed the Actor, although the guild gives separate honors to best performance by a male actor and by a female actor.
That cracks the door open, but only slightly. Fling it wide so that Daniel Day-Lewis' majestic performance in "Lincoln" and Jessica Chastain's steely turn in "Zero Dark Thirty" vie for the grand prize!
"That's a great idea," said Mark Andrews, writer-director of the animated film "Brave." ''At the end of the day, we're all storytellers, and I don't think when we're defining a character that the gender is the major defining factor."
In all other awards-eligible fields, including directing, writing or cinematography, everyone is "going for it," male and female alike, Andrews said.
That may be progress in theory for performers but not in practice, according to Sally Field, a SAG and Oscar best supporting actress nominee for "Lincoln."
"If you do that you won't see any actresses up there (on stage) at all," she said. "The percentage of roles is so weighted toward actors. That's the way it's always been."
Exactly, concurred Naomi Watts, "The Impossible" best actress SAG and Academy Award nominee.
"There's so much competition in life and I do think we are different," she said. "Yes, we should be able to have the same things as much as possible ... (but) life's a battle already and there's so many great roles written for men. Women are definitely at a disadvantage when it comes to volume."
Rapper Nicki Minaj, who's considering launching an acting career, has a pragmatic take on the issue.
"You see all those divas in the audience looking so pretty, and they all want to beat each other out," she said. "It's entertainment."
Hathaway, in the running for SAG and Oscar supporting actress honors for "Les Miserables," considers the gender split "an awesome question worthy of an awesome debate."
"Can I conceive of a world where performance becomes a genderless concept? Absolutely. Do I think it's going to happen anytime soon? No," she said.
As Fields pointed out, the bedrock challenge is that women get fewer substantive roles than men. Ironically, that's obscured by the artificial parity on stage each year at awards shows. Five women compete, five men compete, two winners are crowned.
So what's the problem? A quick numbers check makes it clear: Females comprised about a third of the characters in the 100 top-grossing films in 2011, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
This, despite the fact women make up slightly more than half of the U.S. population and, according to the center's previous research, the finding isn't an anomaly.
In this context, feminist leader Steinem sees legitimate reason to retain separate acting awards. When two unequal groups are combined it's the less-powerful one that loses, she said, as when 20th-century U.S. school desegregation lead to mass layoffs of black principals and administrators.
Tom O'Neil, editor of the Gold Derby awards prediction site, said strong forces are arrayed against any such change in Hollywood.
Awards shows routinely try to add celebrity-driven categories, not drop them, to increase a show's "glamor and glitz" quotient, he said, as well as mask the industry's unequal treatment of women.
"It's criminal," he said, bluntly.
In the behind-the-scenes film and TV categories in which the sexes compete, women rarely make it on stage at awards ceremonies. The Oscars started in 1929, but it wasn't until 2010 that the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, was honored as best director (for "The Hurt Locker"). Statistics again provide clarity: Women made up a paltry 9 percent of the directors on 2012's top-grossing films, a new San Diego State University study found.
Let's give two-time Oscar winner Field the last word in this debate.
Actresses "should be in their own category because they ARE in their own category," she said. "They face their own specific kind of difficulties surviving in this business that actors, bless their hearts, don't face."
Gosh, I must have been mistaken. I really was convinced that it was the female actors that insisted they be called actors. I guess it must have been the males that wanted that change. Gosh, I must be dumb.Â
I guess the next thing they should illiminate is gender specific clothing. It seems to me like that's just plain wrong too. Why should women wear one kind of under garments and men another, I mean really! Gender will always be around and it's just plain stupid to try to overlook the fact that there are always going to be differences. In this particular case those type of awards aren't hurting anyone.
"In a society tilting steadily toward gender neutrality." I couldn't DISAGREE more! We've become a society of abolishing anything that's still male dominated in turn for a female majority in countless areas. Anytime women are a minority in the "goody department," it's somehow discrimination and a tragedy. Is it not funny how  the same women who are pro-feminist (and want equality) think that women should have their own, special, preferential awards and treatment simply because they're: women?  We've become a country that is so beyond focused on promoting women for all the goodies while neglecting the crisis of what's happening to boys in our education system and society. The female focused education system is trying to mass produce their idea of a male which is, sensitive and weak. Listen to young women now a days. I'm in shock at the number of them who base getting something they want only off the argument that they're female. They literally think the fact that they're a woman makes them entitled to whatever they want. I'm a woman who's sick of this push for a "gender less society" yet still promotes a special class for women.Â
Having to constantly be on your guard to be 'PC' sucks!! So I might p!$$ off someone....Big Freakin' Deal, grow a thicker skin, ya big baby!!
Hey, 'wayne0021'! I like how you put it.
Why should I hafta take heat because of their choices! Get a grip, and grow up people!!
You can thank the gays and their supporters. In France, they are getting rid of "mother" and "father" on some documentation. Cuz it hurts the gays' feelings!!! Waaaaaaaahhhh!!!!
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Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Oh yes...there used to be a time in history when people understood WHY men and women are so different and the purposes thereof...it's sad that there are some places where even the term male and female are no longer allowed, so as not to anger the so-called sensibilities of those who either suffer from an identity crisis or have failed to understand the necessity of basic human biology and physiology...
Puleez! Can we not have to endure anymore "genderless" NONSENSE ??? I am sick of the weak arguments that labeling by gender is somehow an affront to either sex...or that being gay or straight has anything to do a person's abilities on any level, or that announcing it (**snick**) on the world stage somehow garners a person more accolades!
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So, here's what ya do, if Hollyweird and the world is so insistent upon equality...give the best actor and best actress awards, then stage a cage match, right there at the end of the awards program and have the two of them fight it out...of course, use of the statuette would be allowed...ridiculous, yes? As ridiculous as "de-genderfrying" the entire awards process!
 @takncarabizniz They're not so insistent upon equality. They're so insistent with "Cafeteria Equality" which is their definition of "equality." Cafeteria Equality is a promotion to get women first in line for the goodies and a promotion to get women out of all the -hit areas of society. If it wasn't like this, it would be exactly as you said: an award to the best actor or actress regardless of them being male or female.Â
I'm sorry but the day that we actually become genderless beings then we can become a gender neutral society. Men and women are different anatomically, hormonally, and otherwise. Something that should be appreciated and respected, not this push to create a transcendence.
 @aintno1special Amen. And the bulk of society agrees. We value what it male and female. But the feminist believe this is somehow discrimination and ant-female. I as a woman, personally know damn well I don't want a girl man. But sadly, the system is producing these men. There's no value on masculine traits anymore. We need to wake up and stop this non-sense.Â
Let's see in an industry where egos are bigger than movie budgets and pay checks the stars may give lip service to genderless awards but it will never happen.