Television, Television News

Billions Actor Asia Kate Dillon Asks SAG Members to Combine Gender-Specific Categories in Open Letter

Asia Kate Dillon is the first gender nonbinary performer to play a nonbinary character on a major television show, Showtime’s Billions. On the show, they play Taylor Mason. They have also been in Orange is the New Black and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. For Billions, Dillon has been nominated before at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Recently, Dillon was invited to take part in the SAG Awards’ motion picture nominating committee. They responded with an open letter. This letter was addressed to members JoBeth Williams, Daryl Anderson, Jason George, Elizabeth McLaughlin, and Woody Schultz. The letter requested that gender-specific categories be done away with.

You can read the entire letter here, but here are some excerpts:

In late 2016, I publicly came out as non-binary, meaning I’m not male or female, or man or womxn. I use they, them, their pronouns. If you google my name and “acting award categories,” you will find I have been calling for an end to segregated acting categories. Separating people based on their assigned sex, and/or their gender identity, is not only irrelevant when it comes to how an acting performance should be judged, it is also a form of discrimination.

Not only do your current categories erase non-binary identities by limiting performers to identifying as male or female / man or womxn ( which not all SAG members, like myself, do), they also serve as an endorsement of the gender binary at large, which actively upholds other forms of discrimination, including racism, the patriarchy, and gender violence.

Dillon continued:

The distinction between male and female acting categories was implemented as a means of combating the chronic and systemic overlooking of cis-women, particulary white cis-women, when it came to acting awards. This was despite the fact that there were no other categories similarly revised (as in directoress, best female or best male director/cinematographer/sound designer, etc.) I say “particularly white cis-women” because it’s important to note how dangerous it has been to defend the separation of male and female acting categories, as well as other awards shows’ use of the actress category, as being motivated by wanting representation for all womxn (cis and trans alike).

In fact, Black, POC, indigenous, trans, and disabled womxn are still the most underrepresented groups at any awards show. And yet, if SAG, or the Academy, or the Emmys, or the Critics Choice Awards, decided to combat that underrepresentation by creating Best Black/POC/Indigenous actress in a leading/supporting role, that action would resoundingly read as what it was: racist and discriminatory.

Dillon ended by saying:

To return, then, to your invitation: I would be thrilled to serve as a judge, provided you take immediate action to combine your acting awards into gender-neutral categories. This courageous and overdue step from my union would send a wide message that SAG not only supports me but supports all its non-binary and gender non-conforming members.

What do you think about Dillon’s open letter to SAG members?

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