Should the Oscars have separate categories for best actor and actress? UNM class asks Academy to investigate.

Hollywood’s venerable Oscars could get a makeover under a proposal that a University of New Mexico constitutional law class recently submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The 100-page white paper, tantamount to a legal brief, calls for the formation of an Academy task force to study whether gender integration in the acting Oscars categories is necessary or even legal.

“One of the important legal and social issues analyzed was women’s rights, and the ongoing cultural struggle by advocates for legal and social gender equality in our society,” the paper’s preface indicates.

The awards were first distributed in 1929, with 13 categories, including best actor and best actress. No other awards were distinguished by gender. The 2024 awards had 23 categories, and best actor/supporting actor and best actress/supporting actress remained the only Oscars distinguished by gender.

In today’s increasingly gender-fluid society, the UNM class noted, it’s time for the Academy to consider changing with the times.

“In furtherance of the need to stay culturally current, there is a strong public benefit in periodically revisiting and re-evaluating any and all arguably aged, antiquated and archaic social structures,” the preface added.

The students who helped compile the presentation were among a group taking a course taught by UNM political science adjunct professor Lawrence Jones in 2023. It was a semester-long project and the 12 highest scoring students were invited to help prepare the proposal, which was then sent to the Academy Board of Governors. It took nearly another year for the students to compile the paper as it went through various revisions.

“I really liked that the assignment really captured what we had been working on all year, setting case law, seeing how some cases differed with societal changes and impacts, and how they also were very similar, and how, all in all, it could be translated into different spaces, not just in a legal world, but in something as influential as the Academy Awards,” said student Marijose Ramirez. “I really thought that was a unique way of incorporating the ideas.”

Jones and the students said the assignment was far more than a simple academic endeavor. They see the strong possibility of it at least starting a conversation about the issue.

“I can only hope that it will have an impact,” said student Peyton Bowes. “The most that we can ask is that they’ll read it and genuinely contemplate the ideas that we’re presenting them.”

Additionally, case law, while not directly pertaining to award shows, does seem to set some precedent, the students said.

“Throughout the paper, we cited different Supreme Court cases that dealt with gender segregation and the legality of the 14th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause and how throughout history, Supreme Court history, a lot of these cases were relevant and kind of siding with why gender segregation was not legal and not always the best course of action,” Ramirez said.

While the proposal does a solid job of laying out these arguments, it also helped the students see the issues from both sides, which they see as a positive aspect that may help sway the academy board.

“I think because our paper is not necessarily arguing for, yes, we should desegregate the gender categories. Or no, we shouldn’t,” student Isabella Storms pointed out. “We’re just asking the Board of Governors to consider it either way and to make a task force to consider it.”

During the course of their research, the information gathered actually helped change the way the students felt about the issue.

“Of course, with my own personal convictions that went into it, I think it’s impossible to completely separate your opinion from what you’re writing,” Storms said. “And I think after reading all these Supreme Court cases, and then there were a few that were just federal cases, they changed my thinking on it, because initially I thought, ‘Well, maybe keeping the Oscar category separate helps women, because it provides a like a space for them in a way that they may not be recognized.’”

Other UNM students who also participated in the project included Darlene Alarid, Amelia Beggio, Isabella Fauria, Devrah Fung, Abigail McCoy, Sophia Noelle-Woodstra and Almarina Sosa.

Class projects under Jones have made national headlines. In 2021, Jones’ class at Monmouth University investigated major league pitcher Armando Galarraga’s near perfect game. The research got the attention of Major League Baseball officials, including Commissioner Rob Manfred, and was the subject of an ESPN special that aired earlier this year.