The MTV Movie and TV Awards will replace the Best Actress and Best Actor awards with a non-gendered category for the first time, at the forthcoming ceremony on May 7th.
Emma Watson, nominated for her role in Beauty and The Beast, will go up against Hugh Jackman for his role in Logan in the race for the non-gendered 'Best Actor In A Movie' award, alongside Taraji P. Henson and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya.
In the small screen equivalent category, Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones will be competing against Jeffrey Dean Morgan from T_he Walking Dead_ for Best Actor In A Show.
The show has long been presenting awards that aren’t gender specific, including Best Villain and Best Hero, but this alteration will go one step further in challenging the assumption that there are divisions between male and female performers.
This announcement follows after Billions star Asia Kate Dillon, who identifies as gender non-binary was nominated for the upcoming Emmy Awards. Dillon was asked which category she wanted to be considered for – Supporting Actress or Supporting Actor.
Dillon chose to be submitted under the Supporting Actor category, arguing that ‘actor’ 'applied to all people, regardless of anatomical sex or gender identity' she told Variety. 'The word "actress" came into being to define anatomically female performers,' she added.
The National Television Awards have also created gender-neutral categories, changing its Best Actress and Best Actor categories to Best Drama Performance and Best Serial Performance. Spokesperson Kim Turbeville told the BBC that 'a great performance is great regardless of gender and we think that dropping the male/female division has made the drama performance category more exciting.'
Will bigger awards shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes soon follow suit?
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