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Sexism of American Media Awards

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The topic of sexism in the entertainment industry has become increasingly popular in recent years. With the rise of the MeToo movement and the Feminist movement, there has been a new resurgence in calling out the issues in media award shows. Each awards show is male dominated, within the nominations and in the academy who determines who wins the awards. [1]

The Grammys

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Since the 1950s, The Grammy Awards have awarded musicians/artists for achievement in the music industry. Up until 2012, the Grammys were a gendered awards show, with awards such as "Best Vocal Performance, Female" and "Best Vocal Performance, Male."[2] People were still worried that if joined together, men would dominate women in categories.[3] In 2019 the Recording Academy’s former President, Neil Portnow, stepped down from this position after saying women in the industry needed to “Step up.”[4] This started the movement "#GrammysSoMale" on Twitter which drew in support from many famous women artists. In August of that same year, Deborah Dugan became the first woman to be the CEO of the Recording Academy. In January of 2020 she was fired; after she was terminated, she released a statement calling out the systemic sexism, racism, and sexual harassment in the Grammys workspace, labeling the Academy as a “Boys’ Club.”[4] Over the years there have been accusations of snubbing and bias toward men because the lac of women who win the awards.[4] For the 2022 awards season, the Grammys have released an inclusion rider, where they discuss what they are doing to help elevate under-represented and oppressed voices. They specifically state what they are looking for when hiring on-stage and off-stage people for the awards; more can be read about this in detail here.[5] The Grammy's also has a Task Force where they are "examining barriers and biases affecting women and other underrepresented voices in the music industry and, specifically, the Recording Academy."[6]

The Oscars

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The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, have an acknowledged history of sexism. Though the only gendered sections are "Best Actor/Actress" and "Best Supporting Actor/Actress", this still raises question to the media. Some argue that all categories should be gendered so women can get a chance to win in non gendered categories[7]; however, this raises issues for gender nonconforming people. In the history of the Oscars, no people who identify as Non-Binary have won an Academy Award. Other issues of sexism lie in the industry system and potential bias of the Academy voters. It is shown that men are 2x more likely to win a number of different categories against women. [8] When the Me Too Movement started to gain traction in 2017 and 2018, many famous celebrities came forward and discussed this at the 2018 Academy Awards. The beginning of the 2018 show started with three women who came forward with sexual assault accusations against Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood producer.[9] Actress Mira Sorvino said:

"Everyone is getting a voice to express something that has been happening forever, not only in Hollywood, but in every walk of life."[9]

More recently, the media has noticed the lack of women directors nominated at the Academy Awards. The first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director was Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for her film The Hurt Locker.[10] Since then, Chloé Zhao won the second award given to a woman for "Best Director" in 2021 for Nomadland.[11] Zhao was also the first Asian woman to win the award. Seven women have been nominated as of 2021: Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campton, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelo, Greta Gerwig, Emerald Fennell, and Chloé Zhao.[12]

The Emmys

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Emmy Statuette

The Emmy Awards have a long history of being gender divided, but they did not start that way. The very first Emmy Awards only had six awards given: "Most Outstanding Television Personality," "The Station Award for Outstanding Overall Achievement," "Technical Award," "The Best Film Made for Television," "Most Popular Television Program," and a "Special Emmy" for the designer of the Emmy Statue. Up until 1951, the Emmy Awards did not have any gender specific awards. The introduced awards were Best Actor and Best Actress. The 1952 awards featured a Best Comedian Award, which featured both male and female comedians. This award was separated in 1953 into two separate awards for each gender, the Best Comedian award and Best Comedienne award. The 1953 awards also featured a Most Outstanding Personality award which had male and female nominees. In 1955 the Emmy Awards introduced directing and writing awards, the labels were ungendered but only men were nominated for the awards that year.[13] Some people worry that if the Emmy Awards were to go gender free, that women would just not be nominated. Others bring up the point that in todays age there are many gender non-conforming performers who are not included in any of the categories.[14]


The Tonys

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The Tony Awards have received a substantial amount of backlash from the public for the majority of their awards going to cis-straight-white men. In the year 2000, an anonymous group of woman creators collaborated on an essay written to the New York Times calling out the sexism and racism in American Theatre. They ended the essay with this statement:[15]

“What's wrong with the Tonys is what's wrong with Broadway. Without the vision of women and artists of color, audiences are seeing only the first act of the show.”[15]

These issues are still discussed broadly today; in 2019 Rachel Chavkin called out Broadway’s sexism in her acceptance speech when she won the award for “Best Direction of a Musical” [16]

“I wish I wasn’t the only woman directing a musical on Broadway on season. There’s so many women and artists of color ready to go. It’s a failure of imagination by a field whose job it is to imagine how the world could be.”[16]

The Feminist Spectator, a website out of Princeton University that centers around feminist issues, found in 2011 no American women playwrights had won Best Play since the turn of the 21st century and that only 12% of nominees were women. [17] Some argue that women are simply just not writing good plays, that audiences prefer to hear plays from men. Playwrights Martha Norman and Theresa Rebeck challenge this idea and claim that this perpetuates harmful stereotypes against women.[17]

Sexual Harassment Accusations

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With the Me Too Movement becoming mainstream in 2017, multiple women have come forward with their stories from the entertainment industry and the harassment that they have experienced from within.[18] A study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) determined that sexual harassment is still a "significant issue in the entertainment industry."[19] The acting unions who participated in the study say that 86% of them have concerns of sexual harassment in their workplace. [19] Unions and employers have been making initiatives to educate, protect, and help their employees from this ever happening. [19]



References

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  1. ^ "Exploring Sexism In Award Shows". Impact Magazine. 2020-02-28. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  2. ^ "28th Annual GRAMMY Awards". GRAMMY.com. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  3. ^ Twitter; Instagram; Email; Facebook (2018-01-25). "More than 90% of recent Grammy nominees are men, USC study finds". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-11-21. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ a b c "And the winners are… racism, sexism, harassment". Red Hook Star-Revue. 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  5. ^ "Inclusion Rider". GRAMMY.com. 2021-10-18. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  6. ^ "Meet The Recording Academy Diversity Task Force". GRAMMY.com. 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  7. ^ Flanagin, Jake. "Why the Oscars Should Be Segregated by Gender". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  8. ^ Grout, Kenneth; Eagan, Owen (2020-11-02). "Oscar Is a Man: Sexism and the Academy Awards". Tripodos. Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations-URL (48): 85–102. ISSN 2340-5007.
  9. ^ a b "Harvey Weinstein accusers introduce #MeToo video at Academy Awards". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  10. ^ "The 82nd Academy Awards | 2010". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  11. ^ "The 93rd Academy Awards | 2021". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  12. ^ "The 93rd Academy Awards | 2021". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  13. ^ "Nominees / Winners". Television Academy. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  14. ^ Clarendon, Dan. "The Debate Over Gendered Emmy Categories Rages On". TV Insider. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  15. ^ a b "THE TONYS; Racism and Sexism". The New York Times. 2000-06-04. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  16. ^ a b McHenry, Jackson (2019-06-09). "Director Rachel Chavkin Calls Out Broadway Sexism in Tonys Acceptance Speech". Vulture. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  17. ^ a b "Tonys 2011: Where Are the Women?". The Feminist Spectator. 2011-06-10. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  18. ^ "Me Too: Sexual Harassment Awareness & Prevention". Maryville Online. 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  19. ^ a b c "Sexual harassment remains a significant concern in the entertainment industry, finds new ILO study". UNI Global Union. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
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