Gender-Neutral Oscars?

On March 3, 2010 The New York Times ran an article written by Kim Elsesser entitled “And the Gender-Neutral Oscar Goes To.” Elsesser is a research scholar in Women’s studies and psychology at UCLA with a primary focus on gender issues in the workplace. The op-ed article argues that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should merge the Academy Awards categories of best actor and best actress. Elsesser argues that the two categories need to become one category in order to eliminate gender segregation in Hollywood.

For this article there are several different audiences Elsesser is addressing. The first most obvious audience she is addressing is the Hollywood film industry and more specifically the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A majority of the article is spent scrutinizing Hollywood and their award ceremonies but in her final paragraph Elsesser makes a direct suggestion that the academy should modify its ballots to treat men and women as equals. The author also may be hoping to persuade Hollywood elites that having a separate category for males and females is sexist and to take action against it. Another audience of this article is anyone who reads The New York Times since that is where the article was published. Readers of The Times tend to be middle aged with an about equal number of male and female readers (Customer Insight). Additionally, women are another potential audience for this article. The overarching argument of the article is for gender equality, which is primarily an argument made for and by women. Elsesser uses ethos, pathos, and logos throughout her article in an attempt to persuade her target audience.

In the opening paragraph of her article Elsesser uses an appeal to patho...

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...ue to the fact that she is so concerned with the gender aspect that she overlooks the reasons for keeping the categories separate. By having separate categories a male and female staring in the same film are both eligible to win an award, something that would be impossible if the categories were merged. She also disregards the fact that merging the two categories would lead to fewer nominees, which would force both male and female actors to be left out of the nominations. Her background in Women’s studies further impacts the overall effectiveness of this argument. Many readers may disregard the entire article because they feel that she is just using it as a means to promote Women’s rights. On the other hand, people who firmly believe in gender equality may be more inclined to accept her argument, even if they could care less about having separate categories.