The Oscars

Juan Carlos Gascón has been nominated in the Best Actress category for his role as a "trans-identied" drug dealer in the film "Emilia Pérez."

The 2025 Oscar nominations were released three days ago, on January 23. I used to await this moment. I would see as many of the contenders as possible, and scour the nominations, then see the rest before the actual Academy Awards.

My favorite thing to do in my twenties — yikes, a very long time ago — was to go to a double feature by myself. I didn’t have to negotiate what movies to see with anyone. I just walked in. It was a luxury of time and childlessness, that I failed to appreciate fully at the time.

I don’t pay any attention to the Oscars anymore. I haven’t even heard of most of the movies that were nominated last week. But I perked up when a man was nominated in the Best Actress category.

I’ll focus on Best Picture here. First of all, there are ten nomninations, which seems excessive. Didn’t there used to only be five in every category?

I’m going to not google these movies as I mention them to stay true to whether or not I actually know anything about them.

Here are the nominees:

Anora — no idea what this is

The Brutalist — my 21-year-old son told me about it. I want to see it. I like Andrian Brody, the film’s star. It’s not available on streaming so I’ll have to wait. As much as I don’t watch movies, I REALLY don’t watch them in the theater

A Complete Unknown — no idea.

Conclave — heard of it. Mostly (I think) because Megyn Kelly (it’s the one podcast I listen to pretty religiously) said it was terrible and she wishes she hadn’t watched it. Other than that, I know nothing about it. I don’t even know why Kelly didn’t like it.

Dune: Part Two — I know the books. Have never read them. I am not a science fiction fan.

The Substance — I wrote about this film. Didn’t like it. It had received much fanfare for Demi Moore’s performance after she won a Golden Globe for her role. The movie was championed as a feminist triumph, a comeback for a “mature” actress (Moore) who had never been taken seriously by the industry as a young woman. My son told me he loved this body horror flick (the same 21-year-old mentioned above) so I watched it. I disliked it enough to make watching the other potential nominees unlikely.

I’m Still Here — no idea what this is.

Nickel Boys — I read half the book once. It is very unusual for me to stop reading a book half-way through. I usually force myself to finish no matter what but I didn’t like this one. I don’t even remember why. I am unlikely to see the film.

Wicked — who could have missed the fanfare over the film’s two stars — Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo? And the Universal mishap of printing the wrong url on the back of the doll merchandise, which took kids to a porn site? Ok I watched this because my 8-year-old daughter wanted to see it. I don’t like musicals or Ariana Grande and the pair of stars were exceedingly annoying in the press tour for the movie. BUT, I LIKED THE FILM! I’m not getting into it here. But I recommend!

Emilia Pérez — ok here’s the one we’re gonna talk about. Haven’t seen it. Didn’t know what it was about. But I did know that the film’s star — Karla Sofia Gascón — won a major award at the Cannes Film Festival last year, the first “trans” person to win a prize at Cannes.

Now, Karla Sofía Gascón makes history (I hate this phrase) for being nominated in the best actress category as a man. The movie is about a drug lord (played by Gascón) seeking to change his sex through surgery — an impossibility, I should note.

I won’t see this movie. I don’t care. I don’t care about drug dealers or deranged men who think they are women. Well I care but only because of how we celebrate them, rather than treat them as the mental patients that they are, in need of help and care — yes, but not to be treated as social justice warriors/heroes.

Men have played women before. Women have played men or “trans” people before.

Linda Hunt played a man in The Year of Living Dangerously and won an Oscar in 1982. In the women’s category. Because Hunt is a woman.

Dustin Hoffman was nominated for a best actor Oscar in the 1983 awards for playing Tootsie, a man who pretends to be a woman to get acting parts. (Sounds like Gascón).

Robin Williams played Mrs. Doubtfire, a crotchety English nanny, and got hired by his ex-wife to be their children’s babysitter. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1994. In the men’s category. Because Williams was a man.

And lastly, perhaps the most salient example, Hilary Swank played Brandon Teena (a “trans identified” female) in Boys Don’t Cry and won an Oscar in 1999. In the women’s category. Because Hilary Swank is a woman.

Why does it matter that Gascón — a man — was nominated in the women’s category? Should there even be a men’s and a women’s category for best actors when there is no advantage (like in sports) for men vs women? Maybe there shouldn’t be. But there are. And if there are two separate categories, and there are actually fewer great roles for women than men, then women should win in women’s.

In 2023, the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University studied gender disparity in film and found that speaking roles for women in film declined from 37% to 35%.

. . . for all of the talk about Barbie’s success, the overall percentage of women in speaking roles contracted from 37% in 2022 to 35% in 2023, and the number of females in major roles remained the same at 38%. The percentage of films with female protagonists declined from 33% in 2022 to 28% in 2023.

But now, despite the reduction of speaking roles (i.e. “good roles”) for women in film, men take awards from women. Further reducing opportunities for actual women.

San Diego State University is right: It’s a Man’s (Celluloud) World. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences men make better women than women do.

And now, the women nominated in this category will be forced to sit down, shut up and take it, just like in sports, when/if Gascón wins the Oscar. Even if he doesn’t win, he is taking a spot from a female. Once again, misogyny reigns. Not only in the nomination, but in the response to the Oscar nod. The fellow female nominees (and non-nominees) in the category will be pressured to just accept a man stealing their opportunities — to cheer for it! They will be coerced into clapping and fawning at Gascón’s nomination as a victory for social justice, rather than the blatant misogyny that it is.

I have no issue with Gascón being nominated. Nominate him in the men’s category, just like Robin Williams for Mrs. Doubtfire and Dustin Hoffman for Tootsie.

Juan Carlos Gascón, the actor, changed his name at 46. He was a male actor of little repute before gaining all of this fanfare for performing as a woman. This is yet another case — just like swimmer Will Thomas — of a man being average, then excelling when pretending to be a woman.

You get nominated in the sex category to which you are born, not the role you play. And Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire is no more of a woman than Juan Carlos Gascón as Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (the drug dealer’s name in the film) is.