I work in the creative arts, and over the last few years have seen almost every single competition, professional opportunity, shortlist, grant, prize, residency, scholarship etc. originally for women opened up to (and frequently awarded to) self-identified trans-identified males as well. While I fully support new opportunities being created for people regardless of gender identity, I have to wonder: the declared intent of those opportunities originally created for women was to support women - i.e. females - in a field they have historically been completely shut out of. To this day, most of the large organizations commission less than 5% of their works from women. In some of the most prominent organizations, that number is closer to 1%. By all means, create opportunities to award people regardless of their gender, but what message does it send to women that - when we are still hugely underrepresented and underappreciated as artists - that the few opportunities created for us are given away yet again to males?
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