Sam Smith excluded from gendered categories at 2021 Brit awards

[ladsnet]

Sam Smith, the pop singer whose gender identity is non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at the 2021 Brit awards.


The awards system has maintained its usual artist categories, with prizes for British solo male and British solo female. That means there is no room for Smith, who uses they and them as their pronouns since coming out as non-binary in September 2019.


https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/m...rit-awards


What a shame.
Got him/her/them/whatever in the papers again though.

[Heinrich]

Did they do anything the last two years?

[jumbler]

Did they do anything the last two years?

That has to be the main criterion, doesn’t it?? Chilling in your lounger by the beach doesn’t automatically qualify you for a Brit.

[Green Circle]

Sam Smith being a total abomination to the idea of music and singing might have something to do with it too.

[bassman]

There have been quite a few online comments on social media which have deliberately mis-gendered Sam, which isn't great.

As much as I find Sam to be pretty annoying musically and "headline-hungry", I think the best solution is to merge the Solo categories (but possibly this risks male domination and less inclusion within the Solo Artist category)??

There would have to be a fair split of male/female/non-binary nominations or something like that, based on merit.

[Hugh]

I think it might be just me that finds that can't understand Sam Smith singing.
As if they are mumbling.
The Bond song that was sung, Writing's On The Wall, can't understand what they is singing.

[westham1980]

Didn't he then promote menswear?!

[Seriously]

Do we need a Best Non-Binary category?

[ladsnet]

Is there any other non-binary popsters ?

Maybe thats his game. He'll win every year.

[Hugh]

Sam Smith is the only popstar that I know of that is non-binary.
If there were enough people that are non-binary and enough to release good enough music to full up the nominations, them maybe

[ladsnet]

Is there any other non-binary popsters ?

Maybe thats his game. He'll win every year.

Just thinking this through.
He'd probably still lose

[Seriously]

Is there any other non-binary popsters ?

Maybe thats his game. He'll win every year.

Just thinking this through.
He'd probably still lose

"He'd"?

[ladsnet]

Sorry 'they'd' which I still can't get my head around from a grammar point of view.


They've had a new tatto !

https://people.com/style/sam-smith-new-t...-identity/

[Heinrich]

It's hard at first but if you work at it, they becomes as natural as the rest. But yeah I think they might have been overrated the whole goddamn time as a talent.

[Parsifal]

For the speaker I can see how it can become easy with (much?) practice.  As the listener I find it confusing as hell when someone uses "they" in the third person singular.  When I hear "they" I think plural.  More than one post in this thread (and others) I've had to read it twice to understand what the person was saying.  You have to decipher what the person is saying rather than hear it easily (which is not the same as speaking it easily - maybe there's a reason why it's hard at first).

[jdcyl]

There are quite a few languages where the most polite and formal form of addressing a single person is to use the plural third person. “Waiter speak” in Italian, for example. Over the years I’ve sometimes been confused when phoning the household or office of some grand personage, and the secretary answering wants to know who am I, so that he may introduce me properly. The enquiry translates as “Who are they?”, meaning “Who are you?” Very confusing when tired from travel, and one’s brain hasn’t switched over to the other language yet.

[Parsifal]

Very interesting when also used in the first person singular.  I never heard of that before.  But as you say, it can be very confusing while understanding a foreign culture it is not always apparent.

Outside of customary situations I have always believed that one should speak and write for the benefit of the person being spoken/written to and not use shortcuts and habits for my personal convenience.  In posts on this forum I always strive to write clearly for the benefit of the readers and welcome corrections to my spelling, grammar and punctuation (allowing for American usage of course).

[Seriously]

If someone identifies as gender neutral, do we have any new terms for "Aunt" or "Uncle"?

[Parsifal]

My parent's sibling?

[Tiuri]

If someone identifies as gender neutral, do we have any new terms for "Aunt" or "Uncle"?

There are several suggestions to be found online, for instance, auncle, entle or pibling. There's no standard as yet.
See here