Woke actress Jameela Jamil has taken a surprising turn by coming out against gender-neutral award categories, arguing that they have contributed to the erasure of women.
Jamil, most known for her starring role in The Good Place, issued her lament in an Instagram post Saturday where she suggested that “non-binary” people have award categories of their own so that women do not lose out.
“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 award shows?” Jamil wrote.
“If we now have enough non-binary talent to restructure entire award 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. I have no horse in this race,” she continued.
The She-Hulk actress said her post came in response to the Oscars “looking to get rid of gendered acting awards.”
“As we see with the director award which is genderless, it’s rare to even see a woman nominated never mind win,” she said. “I want to open more doors and create more tables, not narrow the opportunities for everyone, including GNC people.”
“If we do Athlete of the year, without gender, it is highly unlikely that aside from the odd year of affirmative action, for optics, that anyone other than a cis man is going to win, because they dominate that world,” she continued. “They generate the most income for the industry, get the most attention and are the biggest stars/names. And yes, that is frustrating, but as I said in these slides, we cannot bank on utopian changes, we have to work incrementally to create change and visibility.”
Many women’s advocates, especially in sports, have called for a separate category for transgender and self-described “non-binary” athletes to compete amongst themselves so that women do not miss out. For Jamil to join that chorus is something of a surprise, considering she has been at the forefront of virtually every woke cause, from abortion to LGBTQQIAAP2S+ representation to forced diversity.
Leftists who viewed Jamil as a steady ally responded to her post with considerable outrage, confusion, disgust, or just general disappointment.
“This is frankly a sad take. I don’t honestly know the right answer to this situation but separating non-binary people (like me) is a bad idea,” said one Instagram user. “We shouldn’t be forced to choose a side or be put in our own category like we are being othered. We do not fit into the binary ideas of men and women categories. This is like saying oh those non-binary people are separate but not equal.”
“I disagree, why separate and polarise more within genders. We should do genderless awards and clean up the way the awards are nominated and chosen, don’t change because people do it wrong. Change the people who are doing it wrong,” said another.
“This is a good conversation generator but I think misses the point a little. Non-binary is not a third gender – there are many gender identities within that umbrella. So we need to focus on dismantling and then rebuilding the system that favours cis (and white…) men so that it represents a wider group of people,” said another.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed on Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies, or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.