Lady Gaga calls on Oscars to ditch male and female categories
Lady Gaga, winner of the Music (Original Song) award for ‘Shallow’ from ‘A Star Is Born,’ attends the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on February 24, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty)
Lady Gaga has called on the Oscars to ditch its gendered acting categories, after her acclaimed performance at the Academy Awards.
Speaking to media after the ceremony on Sunday (February 24), Lady Gaga sent a message of love to LGBT+ fans, and added that the ceremony should move away from gendered categories.
“I have a true dream in our future as we evolve as humanity that these award shows not be male and female, but that we include everyone,” she said.
Lady Gaga wants the Oscars to ditch its gendered acting categories, male and female categories. (Frazer Harrison/Getty)
The MTV Video Music Awards went gender-neutral in in 2017, replacing the Best Female Video and Best Male Video awards with a unified category, Artist of the Year.
However, no major acting awards have followed suit, with the Oscars sticking to the gender-segregated categories.
Lady Gaga sends message to LGBT+ fans
The A Star is Born star picked up the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Shallow”, and was also nominated for Best Actress—though she lost out to The Favourite‘s Olivia Colman.
During the press conference, the singer sent support to fans attending 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which kicks off this week.
She said: “What I would love to say is one of the hardest things in life is to be brave enough to be yourself.
“I hope that everyone there in Sydney feels so much joy and celebrates all sexual identities.”
— Lady Gaga
“I wish to everyone that is going to that celebration to feel a joy inside of them.
“That’s actually what Bradley said to me yesterday right before we did our last rehearsal for this performance of ‘Shallow.’
“He said, ‘let’s just drop a little bit of joy.’ And I said ‘okay.’ It turns out, joy did a whole lot for me.
“So, I’ll tell you something… I hope that everyone there in Sydney feels so much joy and celebrates all sexual identities.”
A Star is Born drag stars made Oscars red carpet debut
A Star is Born did its own bit for celebrating sexual identities by featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race queens Shangela and Willam, who both made an appearance on the Oscars red carpet in drag.
Speaking to Variety before the awards show on Sunday (February 24), Shangela said: “Honestly, I’m just so grateful to be here.
Lady Gaga shares a message to those going to 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras: “I wish to everyone that is going to that celebration to feel a joy inside of them” #Oscars pic.twitter.com/Wg7kCfzIeM
— Variety (@Variety) February 25, 2019
“And I think I might be one of the first, if not the first, drag queens, in drag, to ever walk down the red carpet at the Oscars.
“I hope that means something to somebody out there, because it means something to me.”
