FEATURE:
I’m Not the Only One
IN THIS PHOTO: Sam Smith, who identifies as non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at this year’s BRIT Awards
Is It Time for the BRITs to Change Its Gendered Categories?
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ALTHOUGH there has been some progression…
at music award ceremonies in terms of gender and racial balance (in terms of who is nominated), there are still areas where improvement is required. The GRAMMYs were criticised for years because of a lack of women and BAME artists being nominated. They have made some big steps over the past year or two but, with The Weeknd boycotting them after being snubbed, they still have to deal with fallout and blowback. The BRITs has faced some problems this week as Sam Smith has been excluded. This article from The Guardian explains more:
“Sam Smith, the pop singer whose gender identity is non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at the 2021 Brit awards.
The awards system has maintained its usual artist categories, with prizes for British solo male and British solo female. That means there is no room for Smith, who uses they and them as their pronouns since coming out as non-binary in September 2019. They said at the time: “After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.”
Their album Love Goes is eligible for the British album of the year award. It reached No 2 in the UK chart on release in October 2020, and remained in the Top 40 until last week.
In a statement on Instagram, Smith said: “The Brits have been an important part of my career … Music for me has always been about unification not division. I look forward to a time where awards shows can be reflective of the society we live in. Let’s celebrate everybody, regardless of gender, race, age, ability, sexuality and class.”
A Brit awards spokesperson later responded, saying: “Sam is an extraordinary British artist and we agree with what they have said today. The Brits are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review. But any changes made to be more inclusive need to be just that - if a change unintentionally leads to less inclusion then it risks being counterproductive to diversity and equality. We need to consult more widely before changes are made to make sure we get it right”.
The awards have made changes to the eligibility criteria this year, allowing non-British citizens to be nominated in British categories providing they have been a permanent resident for more than five years.
The change means that pop singer Rina Sawayama, who holds Japanese citizenship but has lived in the UK for more than 25 years, is eligible, and has been nominated for the rising star award alongside rapper Pa Salieu and pop singer Griff. She was deemed ineligible for the 2020 Mercury prize on citizenship grounds, a decision she described as “very upsetting”. The Mercury prize has also now updated its eligibility criteria to match that of the Brits”.
It sounds like there will be changes in the next couple of years. Whether it means the BRITs organisers will a Best Non-Binary Artist category or dispense with the gendered categories, I don’t know. It does seem strange that, at a time when there are so many non-binary/gender-fluid artists, award ceremonies do need to adapt.
Maybe it is outdated to separate male and female artists when there could be a single category. Some say that, if that were the case, then there is a danger of women being under-represented and overlooked. The BRITs has faced a problem with a lack of female artists being nominated in the past. Last year, The Guardian detailed a serious oversight and issue:
“Because Brits eligibility doesn’t just depend on artists releasing music during the previous 12 months, but Top 40 success. This disadvantages female performers, who are being signed and promoted at an inferior rate: as industry reporter Rhian Jones identifies in her assessment of this year’s Brits, 2019 analysis by former Basca CEO Vick Bain of UK labels’ public-facing rosters found that fewer than 20% of actively promoted current signings were women. Unlike rap, in which DIY paths to the mainstream are de rigueur, pop as an art form relies on scale and infrastructure that an individual can’t create for herself.
The Brits could change its rules so that any British music released over the past 12 months might be considered – an opportunity to recognise our considerable creative influence over the bottom line – but as is often the case with music’s power brokers, they are shifting the blame, stating that the longlist was pulled from Official Charts Company data. This amounts to passing the buck from left hand to right: major labels produce the bulk of what goes in the charts. They also take turns running the Brits (this year, it’s Universal). Their voting representatives almost always tip their own product. And so the pool shrinks”.
The BRITs faced a #BritsSoWhite controversy of 2016 when it failed to nominate any Black artists. They then diversified its voting committee. In 2020, its 1,445 members comprise 49% female and 24.5% BAME voters. The BRITs Rising Star 2021 trio is the most diverse – and I think, interesting – for years. It is going to be a hotly-contested category and, whilst I think Rina Sawayama will win, the fact all the nominees are non-white artists is a move in the right direct - and the artists are all very different and primed for big things in the future. We can see how the BRITs has reacted to negative press and clear lack of diversity. Let’s hopes that Sam Smith’s snub compels the award committee to make some alternations. Some would argue that Smith’s latest album, Love Goes, of last year was not going to be in the running for nominations. I do think that last year’s BRITs was a triumph, in the sense that we saw more BAME and female artists nominated and winning awards. Non-binary artists are not a silent voice and reserved to a few people. Perhaps Sam Smith is one of the most high-profile. One has to ask that, if there are changes regarding gender categories, then what about trans artists. Maybe it is complex to change the entire system and overhaul things but, as there are so many important non-binary artists, it is clear that the BRITs (and all other award ceremonies) need to…
RESPOND proactively.