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Peter Andre slams Brit Awards for axing best male and best female categories

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 29:  Peter Andre, former husband of Katie Price a.k.a. Jordan, attends a photocall during the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on August 29, 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland.  (Photo by Martin McNeil/Getty Images)
Peter Andre has criticised the Brit Awards' plan to abandon best male and best female categories in 2021 (Photo by Martin McNeil/Getty Images)

Peter Andre has slammed the Brit Awards’ decision to ditch its traditional best male and best female categories to create space for gender non-conforming nominees at future ceremonies.

In his New! magazine column earlier this week, the Mysterious Girl singer touched on non-binary star Sam Smith - who recently announced that they would like to be referred to by non-gendered pronouns rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’ - and claimed that axing existing categories wasn’t the way to achieve further equality.

"I'm fine with Sam and other people identifying themselves however they like, but I don't agree with getting rid of best male and female categories,” the 46 year old said. "I think it's all going way too far now.

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“By all means add a brand new gender-neutral category, but what's wrong with celebrating the exceptional people in the music industry who identify as men and women? I don't get it. The problem is people get offended way too easily nowadays."

While Brits organisers have confirmed that next year’s event won’t be affected by the proposed plan, Andre doesn’t seem to be the only celeb left unimpressed by awards’ desire to “evolve”. Last month, Good Morning Britain Piers Morgan said: "I think it's just great that time-honoured traditions should be scrapped because one guy can't decide if he is male or female.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 19: Sam Smith attends the LA Premiere of Roadside Attraction's "Judy" at Samuel Goldwyn Theater on September 19, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Andre explained that while he understands Sam Smith's non-binary identification, he doesn't think it should dictate new traditions (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Referring to Smith, Morgan added: “I think it is a load of nonsense. The idea you have to change entire award categories for one guy, it's nonsense."

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"So they are saying they want to accommodate non-binary performers like Sam Smith. Now he'll enter the non-binary categories. The whole point of having gender categories is to make it fair, to make it equal. Now we are going to go the other way."

It’s worth noting that the Grammy Awards axed their male and female gender categories in favour of more inclusive groupings back in 2012. Despite this, the Metro reports that there are some individuals within the music industry who are apparently worried that men will dominate in certain categories and marginalising female artists.