When the Brit Awards first announced towards the end of 2021 that they would be making their prize categories gender neutral the response could be kindly described as cautiously optimistic – with a dose of scepticism. And yesterday (12 January), when the nominations for Artist of the Year were announced as Central Cee, Fred Again, George Ezra, Harry Styles and Stormzy the total lack of female or non-binary representation was taken as confirmation that the well-meaning experiment was an abject failure. What was intended to eliminate prejudice and increase equality had become its own punch line; inclusion was now something industry executives didn’t have to think of at all.
Already, amid the justified backlash from artists and fans, the argument has become convoluted and hateful. Perhaps inevitably, it has been twisted into one over “woke culture gone too far”, not just the industry being out of touch or sexist. “What about women?!” goes the rallying cry (meaning cis women). “Why are women always being forgotten about?”
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