At the end of November, the Brit Awards announced that from 2022 their categories would become gender neutral. The awards will scrap four of their existing rewards; best male solo artist, best female solo artist, best international male solo artist, and best international female solo artist and replace them with two new categories; artist of the year and international artist of the year.
The change is a big success for non-binary artists such as Sam Smith and Demi Lovato who previously wouldn’t fit into any category. The new categories will debut for the 2022 Brit Awards that will take place on February 8th from London’s O2 Arena.
The awards made this announcement via Instagram, stating: “Artist of the Year and International Artist of the Year – celebrating artists solely for their must, The BRITs have committed to making their show more inclusive.”
It was no surprise that the post received hundreds of comments opposing the change. One user wrote, “All this new ‘inclusive’ change is going to do is further exclude women. Absolute misogyny from Sam Smith and now the Brit Awards!” whilst another said, “So you get rid of male and female just because of the 00000000.1% that think they are neither, you’re a joke. Feminists where you at?! They are removing females”.
The backlash was pretty inevitable, particularly as the awards made the announcement via social media, where anyone could comment on the change. The concept of somebody being non-binary or wanting to use they/them pronouns is something that’s still fairly new to mainstream media, particularly for older generations, and it receiving backlash is something that is seen pretty frequently. When Sam Smith came out as non-binary for example, they received thousands of hateful and threatening messages,
It is interesting that so many of the hate comments refer to misogyny and feminism, claiming that being inclusive of non-binary people is a threat to women, when in fact it’s quite the opposite. The entire point of feminism is working to ensure that all genders, sexualities and races are treated equally, and that doesn’t ignore genders outside of male and female, or those outside of the gender binary. Working to be inclusive of non-binary artists can open doors for them and lead them to success, but this doesn’t necessarily have to exclude artists of other genders, sexualities or races that have previously been disadvantaged during the awards: if anything, it levels the playing field.
The worries that women will be excluded are valid, particularly when you look at misogynistic past of the Brit Awards. In 2020, of the 25 mixed-gender nomination slots, only one British woman was nominated, and groups such as The 1975 and Little Mix have taken to the Brit Awards stage in the past to call out sexism in the industry. It’s clear that women have often been disadvantaged within the music industry and have often had to fight harder for their place, but making the field more easily accessible for non-binary artists doesn’t make that fight any harder for women. If we’re able to promote inclusivity and encourage a more level playing field in music awards, this will benefit women too.
The move from best female/male artist to artist of the year, means that performers will solely be judged on their musical talent, without other factors swaying the decision. It opens up the opportunity for all artists to be considered, and to be named the best artist out of everybody in the industry, rather than just the best artist of their own gender. When women and non-binary people receive this award, it will prove how they can be just as talented and capable as men, and hopefully will assist in improving the misogyny within the trade.
Despite the hate, the change to the Brit Awards is definitely a positive one, and one that other awards should definitely take note of. It works to both increase the inclusivity of the Brit Awards as a whole, whilst also hopefully improving the existing problem of sexism within music awards.
Although it should never be tolerated, the hate and backlash has brought a lot of attention to the fact that non-binary people exist, and that a lot of the world isn’t designed with them in mind and that this needs to change. The Brit Awards simply changing the wording of their categories is a tiny change and won’t make a difference to the majority of people’s everyday lives, but for non-binary people it’s a huge step in the right direction of inclusivity and acceptance, and hopefully will encourage other institutions to make the same changes.