Do The Oscars Really Need A "Best Actress" Category?

In today's Guardian, writer Sarah Churchwell rails against the "apartheid" categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards. "We still segregate entertainment awards along gender lines," she muses. "Imagine the uproar if we had Oscars for best performance by a black man in a supporting role, or best leading performance by a Jew." Churchwell argues that our society thinks women are only good at looking pretty and making others look pretty; hence women tend to win the costume design and makeup awards, but rarely those for best picture or screenwriting. Since Oscars began in 1928, a woman has never won Best Director. But, Churchwell explains, "The problem is that awards which do not segregate on the basis of gender tend to overlook women altogether. There is no Nobel prize for women's literature: women go head to head with men. And they've won 10 times in 107 years."

(If we banished the Best Actress category, and just had "Best Acting Performance," would women ever get Oscars?)

Continues Churchwell:

Women do badly in awards in which attractiveness doesn't count, which is why they are so under-represented among producers, directors, and Nobel laureates. By the same token (pun intended), beautiful women on display are used to sell everything in our culture, and the Oscars are no exception.

And The Best Frock Is... [Guardian]

Earlier: Diablo Cody: A Flash Of Leg, A Tear And An Oscar

Send an email to Dodai, the author of this post, at dodai@jezebel.com.

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