Award most female thing about Emmys?
by Jess McCabe // 22 September 2008, 14:03
The Emmys are roughly the TV equivalent of the Oscars. Over at AfterEllen, Sarah Warn has an excellent takedown of how sexist and racist the awards are.
First up, who was nominated for what:
There were no women nominated in the categories of Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special, or Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (all the nominees were white men), and there was only one woman nominated in the categories of Outstanding Director for a Drama Series (Arlene Sanford, for an episode of Boston Legal), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Robin Veith for Mad Men), and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special (Heidi Thomas). None of them won.There were some female winners in "outstanding actress" categories — Glenn Close (Damages) for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series; Jean Smart (Samantha Who?) for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Laura Linney (John Adams) for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries — but probably only because it was impossible for men to be included.
This kind of thing makes me wonder if it wouldn't actually be better to scrap women-only awards like this completely - as it only serves to obfuscate how male-dominated the awards are overall.
And then:
If visibility was bad for women overall, it was really bad for women of color. There were only a few women of color even nominated — America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams for Ugly Betty, Sandra Oh, and Chandra Wilson for Grey's Anatomy, and Phylicia Rashad for A Raisin in the Sun — and none of them won. (Shocking again.)
All of this, says Warn, was topped off with a number of moments of retrosexism during the awards - Heidi Klum appeared onstage in a suit, but then William Shatner and some other dude ripped it off "to reveal her skimpy glittering outfit beneath":
Klum just smiled, struck a sexy pose, and said, "Now that I've got your attention..." (Because who would pay attention to her with her clothes on?)
Photo by Dave Malkoff, shared under a Creative Commons license
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Whitney // Posted 29 October 2008 at 01:52
It's sad that we don't see more women being praised for their work at awards shows like the emmy's, but I must say, I don't think it's about fairness to women, it's about rewarding who did best in these categories. Would it be right to include more women just because they weren't getting as many nominations as the men? Just to even it out?