#GrammysSoMen

Last night as award season continues, the world once again tuned in to “music’s biggest night.” However, this year’s Grammy awards could be described in one syllable. “Men.”

Last night, only one woman went home with a major award despite the countless talented women who were nominated. SZA, a woman of color, who has had a dominating year with her album “Ctrl,” went home with no awards, despite her five nominations. But women not winning hardly any awards was arguably not the evening’s biggest issue.

Another large controversy was the fact that Lorde, the only woman nominated for Album of the Year, was also the only nominee in that category who didn’t get to perform onstage during the show. The other four nominees, all men, each got a slot to perform. Fans were furious that artists who weren’t even nominated this year were given priority over Lorde.

While both of these issues are frustrating, especially with the progress of the Time’s Up movement so far this year, this next part was the last straw for me.

Today, the Recording Academy President Neil Portnow blamed the lack of female winners on- yeah, you guessed it- women. Portnow stated that women in the industry need to “step up” in order to win. He claims that the industry as a whole is “making the welcome mat very obvious, creating mentorships, creating opportunities” for women and all creative people. It is here that I would like to point out that Neil Portnow is a rich white man who is the president of an enormous organization in the music industry. In his own words Portnow admits, “I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face…” Despite Portnow’s statements that say otherwise, women usually have to work twice as hard to receive the same opportunities as men. This is even more true for women of color, who must overcome obstacle after obstacle to bypass the white men that have such a head start.

Now that I’ve stated the facts, it’s opinion time. I find Portnow’s statement not only insulting, but untrue. This year the music industry has seen some incredible work from all sorts of women in all different genres. The idea that we, as women, are at fault for our lack of opportunities is absurd. The idea that we, as women, are to blame for the way society underestimates us is unfair.

So I have a message for Mr. Portnow. Women in every industry, in every field, in every nation have stepped up. And we will continue to step up, time and time again. We will continue to make and do incredible things despite the fact that the work of men will always be prioritized above our own. We will continue to work harder and harder to become equals with men, just to get less credit and less pay then men in the same field. We will continue on. We will continue to step up, rise up, and stand up… because time’s up.