Jamie Lee Curtis calls for Genderless Categories and more Female Winners at the Academy Awards
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On Sunday night, Jamie Lee Curtis won her first-ever Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards for her role as Deidre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Picking up the award for Best Supporting Actress, the academy award was a culmination of a long career in the movie industry for Lee Curtis.
Speaking after the event, the 64-year-old took the opportunity to promote the implementation of genderless categories at the annual ceremony going forward. Other large awards ceremonies, such as the Grammys, have incorporated genderless awards now for a number of years, despite fears that it would result in fewer women being recognized.
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Speaking to reporters about the idea of genderless awards, she said:
“Obviously I would like to see a lot more women be nominated so that there’s gender parity in all the areas and all the branches, and I think we’re getting there. We’re not anywhere near there and of course, that then brings the bigger question of how do you include everyone when there are binary choices, which is very difficult.
As the mother of a trans daughter, I completely understand that. And yet, to de-gender the category, also, I’m concerned that will diminish the opportunities for more women, which is something I also have been working hard to try to promote. So it’s complicated, but I think the most important thing is inclusivity and more women.”
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A Topic Close to her Heart
As she alluded to in her backstage interviews, Jamie Lee Curtis has a trans daughter, Ruby, and therefore the topic of genderless categories is something that is particularly important to her.
Ruby came out to her mother in 2020 and married her partner two years later. In an interview with PEOPLE magazine a couple of years ago, Ruby admitted that it was “scary” telling her mom about her true identity. However, she said that she wasn’t worried because she had “been so accepting of me my entire life.”
In the same interview, Curtis said:
“I’m learning new terminology and words, I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it, and I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. You slow your speech down a little and become a little more mindful of what you’re saying. I still mess up; I’m human.”
Now, three years on and with an academy award in the bag, it appears that Curtis has learned a fair bit about the trans community and is using her platform to try and bring about change.
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Curtis’ Acceptance Speech
Saving her suggestions for the future of the famous awards ceremony until after the event, Jamie Lee used her acceptance speech to thank her entire family and referenced famous parents, Tony Curtis, and Janet Leigh. She said:
“I know it looks like I am standing up here by myself, but I am not. I am hundreds of people. My bae Michaele Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu – the entire group of artists who made this movie – we just won an Oscar.
I want to thank my beautiful husband Christopher Guest, and our daughters, Annie and Ruby. My mother and my father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories…I just won an Oscar!”
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