Calling for gender neutral awards

The Nobel Peace Prize.

The Pulitzer Prize.

Class Valedictorian.

While the aforementioned recognitions are awarded regardless of gender, society is still filled with traces of gender bias. Specifically, we have the Best Actress AND the Best Actor awards at Oscars. Does gender really need to be separated for acting awards? How long is it going to take to finally rid all “separate-but-equal” policies?

Chris Rock hosted the 2016 Academy Awards and bravely roasted Hollywood for its gender separate awards, saying “there’s no real reason for there to be men’s and a women’s categories in acting… It’s not track and field; you don’t have to separate them.”

Like Rock mentioned in his monologue, Olympic medals such as track and field are rightfully separated. According to Livestrong, men have a 10 percent athletic advantage over women, but the organization goes on to say that when it comes to mental concentration or dedication, women have equal ability. Acting does not involve athletic ability, but rather focuses more on mental capability.

Five years ago, the Grammys reorganized their awards to merge all genders; instead of giving awards based on best female or male vocals, there is now simply just best solo performance. Since in the television and film industry only 12 percent of protagonists are female, reported by the Indiewire, some believe that separate categories are necessary in order to give women the chance to win well-deserved awards.

But, according to Billboard women also aren’t equally represented in the music industry; there have only been two times in the past decade where the percentage of solo women have outranked men in Billboard’s Top 10. This year at the Grammy’s, Best New Artist was won by Meghan Trainor and Taylor Swift won Album of the Year. These major awards were won by females and to think, without any gender separation!

We need to have faith in women to be able to stand on their own against men in all areas. We won’t know if a woman will win best role instead of a man until they are put on equal grounds. If equal grounds aren’t established this could pose complications for transgender nominees. If a transgender person was nominated for an award would it be best actor or best actress?

The Academy’s sexist nature wasn’t its only problem at this years awards; Rock started his opening monologue by calling the Oscars the “White People’s Choice Awards,” as this year there were solely white American nominees. The host joked about Hollywood’s racism by suggesting that “if you want black people at the Oscars every year, just have black categories for them.” Society should not have to be defined by gender or race in order to recognize everyone.

The Academy can fix this problem easily: have black and minority nominees and gender neutral awards. Whoever portrays the role best should win the award, regardless of their gender or race.