Emma Corrin hits back at gender issues being ‘reduced to clickbait’

Emma Corrin on the red carpet

Emma Corrin has hit out at the subject of gender being “reduced to clickbait” after she spoke about inclusive awards categories.

This week, Corrin made headlines which declared they had called for gender-neutral categories at the Oscars while speaking to BBC News.

But in an Instagram post, Corrin, who came out as non-binary earlier this year, said that “clickbait” headlines sidestepped the nuance of conversations about gender.

“I rarely go public to say anything like this as I understand the nature of journalism in this industry,” they said.

“However, if you are interviewing me about my work and the subject of gender comes up, please respect and represent the integrity of my answer in the context of the interview as a whole.

“What I mean is, do not sensationalise an answer for the sake of a clickbait headline when it is really a subject that, to be a headline, requires proper enquiry and should be represented with more nuance.”

In reality, Corrin explained in their interview with the BBC that the conversation was much wider that awards categories: “When it comes to categories, do we need to make it specific as to whether you’re being nominated for a female role or a male role?

“You can discuss awards and the representation there, but really the conversation needs to be about having more representation in the material itself, in the content that we are seeing for non-binary people, for queer people, for trans people, because then I think that will change a lot.

“When those parts come up, meaning more people and more actors are playing those roles then I think there will be more of an urgency with which these questions will be addressed.”

Emma Corrin said queer people must be able to ‘trust that the sensitivity of conversations around gender will be honoured’

In their Instagram post, they continued: “I stand by any comment that I make surrounding the issue of gender and I’ve always been incredibly open about this subject.

“However we are treading very delicate waters when it comes to the representation of gender in the media and when you reduce entire conversations to clickbait it is not only offensive but you are in danger of scaring people out of talking altogether and what our community needs now more than ever is the knowledge that our openness and honesty will not be taken advantage of.

“When we talk about sexuality or gender we have to trust that the sensitivity of those conversations will be honoured in equal measure to the sensitivity in which those conversations will be represented.”