Tuesday 4 March 2008

Ladies Matter 3

A~ wonders...

"Why do we need a separate award for best actress and best actor? I can understand when we have a gender based prize when the winner is at an advantage due to his/her gender. Like say in an athletic contest. But when it is skill-based, why have a separate category for men and women? We certainly don't have one for literary awards. So why have one for contest like acting or chess?"

10 comments:

Shirsha said...

Does it have something to do with lack of opportunities for women to display as much their acting prowess as men?
or
Does it have something to do with the fact that there exists separate words for male actor and female actor(actress), but doesn't for a male writer/female writer?

Anonymous said...

hey I never thought of this before! Interesting. Yes I am wondering with you, this question is relevant - why not just a best actor, like a best writer?

Nimmy said...

interesting question...but i guess what shirsha says is right....it ain't a world of equal opportunities even in the world of acting....heros get better roles more often than not (fight the villian, think about everything, join hands with the comedian, blah)....heroine is relegated to making a few apperances in the background during maybe some of the important scenes and of course giving the movie all the glamour she can. so, maybe comparing the role of a hero and that of a heroine is like your proverbial apples-oranges thing? a heroine anyways gets an award only if she seems to have gotten an above-average (a.k.a unconventional) role....observed that? not a single heroine who made it to all the songs and a few romantic scenes has ever been nominated for an award i guess...

Anonymous said...

Nice question! I think it has to do with the fact that gender divide exists in payscales and opportunities as well. Very few movies are written with a female in the lead and even if it is done, it serves as a differentiator. So, till the gender scales equalize we will be seeing disparity in everything!

A Motley Tunic said...

As far as chess is concerned, men perform at a different level than woman. I have argued about this, but that apparently is the truth. So women are ranked separately and men are ranked separately.

Check Judit Polgar on wikipedia site. She is the only woman to be ranked in the top 100(men)of FIDE rankings.

Anonymous said...

A very interesting question. I think it has got to do with opportunities (and saleability for movies) which in turn affects the skill level. As long as there is a difference in skill and pay levels, there will be disparity is my 2 cents

Anonymous said...

If gender scales are equal in all fields...this too will fade...but I too pondered about many a times...nice blog

Anonymous said...

wow..thats a very interesting question. never thought of it. but i agree that it has something to do with the fact that female actors are usually percieved to bring a different sort of "value" to a film vis-a-vis male actors (barring exceptions). infact, this (having a common award for male & female actors) wud be an excellent way to improve/ encourage actors to work towards talent based performances.

Anonymous said...

Men and women are different. They are poles apart. They may even be of two different species. They deserve to have their own category of awards for everything. Sports. Background singing. Acting. Directing. Writing. Scripting. Everything! But in view of maintaining the mental sanity of the million others who have nothing to do with the award, let's create award categories if only there is a perceptible difference in a work if its origins are male or female. So off goes best female script writer and best male special effects.

Anonymous said...

An actress plays the part of a woman;an actor of a man.When a male actor plays heroine or an actress plays a hero then it makes sense.
A doctor/surgeon cuts and cures despite gender.
A teacher teaches is not evaluvated by gender either.
An athlete, however, will compete in women's and men's tournament because physical abilities on the track are unequal