Jameela Jamil Suggests Non-Binary Acting Awards So Women Aren’t ‘Completely Shut Out’

Amid continued controversy over gendered acting awards at awards shows, Jameela Jamil is proposing a potential solution to the problem. For many years, the Oscars and other prestigious awards shows have honored both men and women by offering gendered awards, such as Best Actor and Best Actress. In recent years, some non-binary actors have criticized these gendered awards, as it leaves those who don’t identify as either gender feeling left out.

Taking to Instagram, Jamil shared her thoughts on gendered awards in light of them possibly going away at the Oscars. She says that she’s “not going to be nominated for an Oscar anyway,” so she doesn’t have a horse in this race, but with that said, she wonders why it wouldn’t be better to introduce a new acting category for non-binary performers. Jamil explains how this would allow for everyone to be recognized, while scrapping the gendered awards could result in women getting shut out entirely.

“Just asking… Would it not be better to give non-binary people their own category rather than open the door for Hollywood to completely shut out women given the known disproportionate amount of men vs women winning at awards shows?” Jamil writes in the Instagram image. “If we now have enough non-binary talent to restructure entire awards shows, which is GREAT, then we should add rather than run the accidental risk of erasing no? I say this as an audience member, because I am not going to be nominated for an Oscar anyway.. obviously. I have no horse in this race!”

Jamil continues, “It is a shame that this disparity exists in the first place. But it does exist. It is blatant and it makes the news every year within awards shows. I have learned during my 18 years working within activism, that while some backlash is inevitable and indeed helpful, some of it only muddies the waters and slows down progress. I feel as though we will see a growing ire from women who get shut out of award opportunities (again not me, I am frankly not talented enough o care about this from that place!) because we have created only one spot for a winner amongst 10s of thousands of actors, in a world that favors men. I don’t think it will help women or NB people to minimize the amount of possible winners. We should look to EXPAND the possibilities so that both GNC people and women have a fair shot in an industry that has for a long time struggled to treat others [as] equals to men.”

Related: Yellowjackets Star Opts Out of Emmy Consideration Over Gendered Awards

Should Gendered Acting Awards Go Away?

In her statement, Jamil also admits that she was “terrified” to share these thoughts of hers online, concerned about the possible backlash on social media potentially affecting her career. She says that she still wanted to share what she had to say as she has observed that many others agree, and she believes that her proposition would ultimately be the best solution for both women and non-binary actors.

“I was terrified of even writing something as benign as that in this current climate of social politics but it appears a lot of you agree,” Jamil says. “Thank you for taking my best intention to heart and for giving me the benefit of the doubt. I want everyone to win!”

She continued, “To build the world we want we have to work incrementally with the world we actually have first. If we leapfrog progress with utopian ideals that ignore current proven systems we will collapse everything we are working towards.”

You can see the post below.