Who’s really to blame for the Brit Awards men’s shortlist?

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Adele won Entertainer of the Year last year when the awards were also gender neutral. Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images

When the Brit Awards first announced towards the end of 2021 that they would be making their award categories gender neutral, the response could be kindly described as cautiously optimistic with a dose of skepticism. And yesterday (January 12), when nominations for Artist of the Year were announced as Central Cee, Fred Again, George Ezra, Harry Styles and Stormzy, the complete lack of female or non-binary representation was seen as a confirmation that the well-meaning experiment was a resounding failure. What aimed to eliminate prejudice and increase equality had become its own strike line; inclusion was now something industry executives no longer had to think about at all.

Already, amid justified backlash from artists and fans, the argument has become convoluted and hateful. Perhaps inevitably it has been twisted into a woke culture too far, not just the industry being out of touch or sexist. What about women? Why are women always forgotten?

Look a little closer and it’s easier to make out this argument. For starters, as Emily Bootle points out in the i, UK nominations aren’t decided by a few white dudes in a skyscraper. They are voted on by a group of over 1,000 industry executives and insiders. Bootle makes this point to illustrate that, unfortunately for us, there is no single group to blame, be it a sexist boardroom or an awakened army. Further muddying the waters, the Brit Awards told The New Statesman that of those industry executives, more than half (52%) identified as female, while 31% identified as Black, Asian or another ethnic minority. So the problem doesn’t seem to be either traditional corporate jingoism or some kind of political correctness gone mad. Its historical and institutional sexism in the creative industries. How else could 1,000 people distill the UK music landscape to the best of the best and still arrive at Central Cee?

Then there’s the fact that this isn’t even the first year of the gender-neutral UK awards. Last year, with the same modus operandi, women (cis) cleaned up, with Adele winning Artist of the Year. It was no surprise, however, that some parts of her acceptance speech (I love being a woman) had more impact than others (I can see why the name of this award changed). What was missing from Adele’s speech was its intent: to illustrate the under-representation of women, both cis and trans, in the creative industries, which existed long before these awards moved towards gender neutrality. .

This is not a UK or music specific issue. Almost every year, without fail, festival lineups, literary lists, acting and music awards are ripped online because they are predominantly male. It’s hard to imbue the debate with nuance and intent on a list of some of the most boring musicians the country has to offer. It’s just a shame that, online at least, the conversation is dominated by people who don’t seem to care too much about sexism and good music the rest of the year too, when it’s not on a political agenda. .

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[See also: Why Jeff Beck was the best guitarist in the world]

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