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Dec. 31, 2015
When the Oscar Nominees were announced on January 24th, many of the usual candidates were nominated: Leonardo di Caprio, Cate Blanchett, and Eddie Redmayne. However, one complete unknown, was nominated for Best Actor, UChicago first-yearstudent Alex Greenhill, was nominated for Best Actor for their daily performance of their gender.
Greenhill, who was assigned male at birth but now goes but they/them/their pronouns, expressed their disbelief at the recognition.
“To have such a mainstream and heterocentric organization nominate me is crazy – I wasn’t even in a film!” Greenhill said. continued, “I mean we all know that the Academy loves to recognize romanticized cinematic representations of LGBTQ strife, especially when they feature straight, cisgendered actors like Jared Leto, Sean Penn, or Julianne Moore, but to have them validate the daily struggles of an actual LGBTQ individual is amazing. I mean how did they even find me?”
The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, explained that she was snooping on her daughter Tamara’s Ttumblr one night when she came across Greenhill’s blog. Boone Isaacs was shocked to learn that gender is a societal construct that requires all participants to conform to its traditionalist notions of presentation.
Hudson exclaimed, “Through Greenhill, I realized that everything we do is performing our gender,” Boone Isaacs said. “.We speak and act and dress in ways to confirm to those around us that we are male or female. And it’s all dictated by our genitalia at birth? I mean when I saw a picture of RuPaul saying ‘“We’re all born naked andt the rest is drag,‘” I realized that thereir is no more difficult and complex performance than our own gender. I knew I had to nominate Greenhill to recognize that. He, I mean, they, are a true visionary.” Boone Isaacs says that she started lobbying for Greenhill’s nomination the next morning.
Greenhill was elated to receive the nomination, but still noted discontent.
“The gendered aspect of the performance categories leaves no space for actoxrs who do not identify on the gender binary to be nominated,” Greenhill said.. “I don’t know why we should even differentiate between performers of various genders. Everyone should be judged by their merit against everyone, not just those who also present their gender to society in the same way!”
“Oh,” Boone Isaacs saidtated. “I hadn’t even considered that. Wow.”
