On the Today programme yesterday morning an interview with 26 year old break out star of “The Crown” Emma Corrin detailed Corrin’s belief that all awards categories in the future, should be gender neutral.
This is so that non binary people as Corrin identifies, will be more widely included.
Sex based categories are an issue being debated and discussed across all of our social, institutional and cultural lives and so it was only a matter of time before this issue included the entertainment industry.
I’ve been campaigning on inclusion in the entertainment industry too, for many years beginning in 2009 on disabled talent on and offscreen and in advertising. For the last four years, I’ve been campaigning against the exclusion of women over the age of 45 due to ageist, sexism.
This exclusion extends across the media industry in the U.K.
From advertising of products, shaming us for our naturally unreconstructed female faces and hair follicles, (while the silver fox narrative for men still remains) to our exclusion in important news issues like domestic violence and mental health, eating disorders & pressure to look much younger than we are.
Older women don’t matter and this industry fact, whilst loudly disputed by some, remains the case. Diversity and gender equality initiatives which exclude women over 45, aren’t diverse or gender equal at all.
Corrin’s call for awards categories to remove sex based categories, might seem the most pressing issue inthe industry at the moment but as Corrin intends to still be cast in female roles and as young female roles see only devotion in the industry (along with the preservation of male actors in middle age an beyond (Hello 80 year old Harrison Ford’s “Indiana Jones”, sharing the screen with his god-daughter, 37 year old Phoebe Waller Bridge ) ; the fact that this aspect of representation is being seriously reviewed by both BAFTA and the Academy Awards, whilst ageism targeting women over 45 is ignored, fills me with familiar sexist & ageist, dread.
After BAFTA failed to find a single women over the age of 38 in last year’s TV leading actress category nominees & I raised it with them, they agreed to meet with me to look at the issue.
I was as with all of these meetings, promised follow up meetings.
The phrase I’ve come to also dread now and offered by virtually every organisation I’ve met with, was deployed once again “Let’s keep in touch”
Obviously a year on this hasn’t materialised. So it was no surprise to me that this year there wasn’t a single leading comedy actress, over the age of 38, nominated once again in BAFTA’s TV Awards.
In both of the examples I cite above, men over 45 were nominated in their own sex based category.
They always are, it’s only older women who are excluded.
As part of my campaign research last year I did a deep dive into BAFTA TV Awards over the previous 20 years.
My research showed that whilst male nominee age has fallen slightly, from age 48 to 45 the age of women nominees has plummeted, from average age 52 to average age 32.
Men in middle age are still represented, working and secure within their playing age.
Women aren’t.
A 52 year old women can’t and in my opinion shouldn’t have to look 32.
Personal choice on chemical modification and “tweakments” remains the choice and free will of all women. However it’s when that appearance based staple becomes mandatory for women who still want to work, whilst their male counterparts can look like a pair of linen trousers that have been rolled up in a ball at the bottom of a wardrobe and still play vibrant & sexually charged hero of the day leading roles, that my jaw clenches and a feel the rapid onset of TMJ…
So the talent, skill, life and industry experience of women is lost, along with her career. Despite that fact that female led projects see real & loyal and consistently high viewing figures.
Cameo roles really aren’t enough for our extraordinarily talented female performers and enforced retirement is merely discrimination writ large.
The benign patriarchal staple versus the harridan matriarchal staple, is dull and regressive.
This is the situation now, today.
If Corrin’s wish is fulfilled what will this mean for tomorrow?
Well halving the awards categories will naturally halve the opportunities for women and for women over 45 already seriously under represented, the impact will be immense.
BAFTA’s take on making their awards categories gender neutral was included in a piece in The Times with this quote :
“We support, and are engaged in, proactive and thoughtful consultation on this subject — this includes ongoing consultation with our sector peers, industry stakeholders and experts.”
Because they care about some exclusions.
In 2020 I did another Acting Your Age Campaign deep dive into the awards data. I looked at the previous 20 years once again and my findings were that in respect of the Academy Awards, four times as many middle aged men win Best Actor, than middle aged women winning Best Actress.
At the BAFTA Film Awards three times as many middle aged men win Best Leading Actor, than middle aged women winning Best Leading Actress.
Yet for young actresses, those two statistics are reversed in comparison to young male actors. Making the myth of the jealous old hag rather redundant given that the predominantly older male populated, Film & TV industry, seems unsurprisingly to favour itself…
It’s an issue which is picked up by OFCOM repeatedly in the diversity monitoring report. Yet again unsurprisingly to me, the media never features this issue as in anyway problematic. “Older women eh? Bunch of privileged moaners”.
As a society we are becoming progressively more and more vocally ageist, particularly against women.
There’s a lateral thinking question which highlights our unconscious bias in terms of women and it tells the story of a man attending a hospital as his son has been involved in an serious accident and taken into theatre. The surgeon on call explains to the terrified father that it’s impossible for them to operate as the young man in theatre is in fact the surgeon’s son.
The big reveal being that the surgeon is a woman.
I have a lateral thinking problem of my own, inherent in my Acting Your Age Campaign which is calling for equal representation of men & women on screen on stage & in wider media, because when most people imagine discrimination & exclusion of women in our cultural lives, they only imagine the women involved are young.
I launched the campaign four years ago and ever since have been trying to get the issue featured regularly in news & current affairs programming.
All issues of women’s representation, finds a home in media from instagram filters & unrealistic images, to slut shaming, fat shaming and lesbian representation, to disability representation & race & ethnicity exclusions, through to women in sport & the need for single sex spaces on safeguarding grounds ; young women’s representation in media does feature.
But and I say this with respect, trans and non binary people’s issues aren’t neglected at all by media, politicians, celebrities, the NHS the BBC or the majority of print media. It even formed part of the recent PM leadership debate strategy.
Trans rights campaigners & allies have become highly effective lobbyists for their cause, often listing on their websites the hundreds of organisations who they’ve met with, including all the leading UK broadcasters.
Meetings which I have to tell you, I’ve been denied as a campaigner on womens media exclusion & much needed creative inclusion.
Whilst all these organsiations do rightly feature inclusion of LGBT+ people’s concerns and young women’s concerns, the voices of women over 45 who want to voice their concerns on these and many other issues impacting our lives equally, are platformed far less and deemed hate groups, far more.
And women, predictably are targeted with online hatred, abuse & threats daily.
There aren’t “justifiable online threats” of rape or of other forms of violence, only online threats. Excusing them on any grounds simply serves to underline the point about women’s safety as a lesser concern.
And we’re aware of that already thanks, everytime we contemplate taking a walk in the dark.
Despite being a prominent feature of the list of protected characteristics, age or rather the age of older women particularly, doesn’t seem to be an important factor when guests and panels or contributors are chosen. When it comes to leading women on screen, the inequality of men over 45 & women over 45 aren’t unfortunately a visible part of the broadcaster’s 50: 50 Gender Equality initiative .
So the lateral thinking I’ve repeatedly asked for & which is sadly repeatedly ignored, is that we rethink the mantra that there is ‘young women news and no women news’.
To that end and following some pretty grim conversations I’ve had with commissioning editors, producers, broadcasters, organisations & unions over the four years of my campaign, I recently drew up a list for aims for broadcasters, productions companies & news producers, ones which offer solutions and keep gender parity in terms of women’s age, on a par with their male colleagues.
The letter in full can be read here as can the list of the magnificent and hugely talented roll call of notable signatories who agree completely that the industry needs to change in respect of women over 45, (an industry ageist staple incidentally that has existed as long as the industry itself).
It's what I call a parity pledge, one which several notable male actors have signed up to & one that needs to happen because ageism targeting women is an entrenched industry staple.
A woman’s talent isn’t dependent on a calendar and it certainly isn’t the case for men. Today’s in demand young actress, is tomorrow’s unemployed middle aged actress.
The parts offered too, to older women, are too often so narrow and stereotypically negative as to be stigmatising in and of themselves. As male film makers prizing a woman’s youth and beauty are joined by young women film makers with a seemingly endless list of mummy issues. We don’t need yet another older mother with no sense of humour, or entrenched in bigotry like unredeemed homophobia, of the apparent “cause” of her daughter’s mental health issues.
The patriarchal favouring “saintly father” and the matriarchal stigmatising “monstrous mother” is a tired and boring misogynistic trope seemingly there to provide conflict which as with all areas of under representation & narrow representation needs to be limited.
We’re seeing the issue now be addressed and tackled in the U.S, in a way which has garnered increased audience demographics. As this is the holy grail for all broadcasters, trying to compete with the streaming services, then only chasing a youth demographic who don’t consume media in the traditional way and eschew TV channels anyway, seems counter intuitive & counterproductive.
Broadcasters & news media all need to remember that with many conversations happening now around misogyny, some lateral thinking needs to happen because the big reveal here is that older women are women too.
BROADCAST/PRODUCTION COMPANY COMMISSIONERS
1) All onscreen fictional content/ light entertainment programmes with male & female leads/presenters must have 50:50 equal gender & age representation. (In drama & comedy - including romantic & platonic leads)
2) All writer/performer dramas & comedy commissioning must feature 50:50 age & gender parity in programming (not just older men/young women)
3) All diversity initiatives across all broadcasters must ensure a range of representation based on age as well as race & ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ+, disability (EG not just commissioning of stories about young, disabled people this should include children’s programming/presenting)
4)There must no longer be an upper age limit on any new writer schemes/talent searches. (In the case of the BBC representing all audiences forms part of the established charter, this includes women aged over 45)
5) Age must become a mandatory requirement for all broadcaster diversity monitoring (off & on screen) to ensure representation of women over 45. This requires government involvement & an amendment to existing legislation
News & Current Affairs :
6) Presenters of documentaries must be represented equally. 50:50 gender initiatives must include age parity between women & men over the age of 45. (Developing new to screen talent/directors must include women over 45)
7) All contributors to political panels/discussions/news packages/studio guests must feature 50:50 age parity of women over 45 in line with men & young women. (A panel of only middle aged men & young women is dated & unrepresentative)
8) News pieces on women’s physical & mental health, violence against women & appearance based news (EG self esteem impact around filters, cosmetic procedures & appearance shaming) mustn’t have exclusive bias towards young women. There must be 50:50 age parity for women over 45.
9) Celebrity based/entertainment news must feature women & men over 45 equally in terms of achievements & obituaries of women must use recent photographs as with men.
To date and despite other initiatives promoting equality in the Billion pound entertainment industry flourish, not a single broadcaster has signed up.
Yet now the leading awards organisers are reviewing sex based categories. There are many millions of women over 45 globally. In the UK alone there are 12,000,000 women aged between 40 and 69. yet our inclusion, our representation, our identity, isn’t deemed in anyway a priority.
I’m campaigning now so that Emma Corrin can hopefuly still be working at my age of 56.
Restarting the career I trained for was impossible. This needs to stop being the case for the lengendary women whose body of work should never be judged by the age of the body they live in.
Onscreen in the UK men have a whole life and women just a shelf life. Add a non binary category by all means but removing women entirely will, I believe, see the discrimination that arrives in middle age for women, get much, much worse.
