Adele Fans Defend Star Over Comments On First 'Genderless' BRITs

Watch Adele's speech below:

The BRITs ceremony had 'genderless' categories for the first time this year after it was announced in December that gendered categories, such as British Female Solo Artist, would be dropped.

The move towards gender-neutral categories was designed to ensure the ceremony is representative of artists who do not identify as either male or female.

After winning the Artist of the Year award, the 'Easy On Me' singer took to the stage to thank her fans.

But some viewers took offence after hearing Adele say she was proud of being a "woman" and "female" at a gender-neutral award ceremony with some claiming it could be potentially offensive to the trans and non-binary community.

One viral tweet suggested that her comments could be considered "TERF-y".

A TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and refers to a feminist who excludes the rights of transgender women.

One Twitter user said: "Gender neutral awards for the first time at [BRITs] but Adele takes the opportunity to make it about being a woman, [don't] make sense."

However lots of Adele fans took to social media to defend the pop superstar by stating that she has every right to be proud of being a woman.

One woman gushed: "Adele said she is proud of being a woman, a female artist & somehow these simple words are sending some people into tortuous agony.

"Thing is, being a woman is a wondrous thing: we're half the world population & we give life to the other half. What's not to like."

Another fan welcomed Adele's comments, writing: "Literally the only thing Adele did was say she liked being a woman and use the word female. That’s a problem?"

Other fans said her comments "should not be controversial" regardless of the context and she has "every right to love being a woman and proud".

Musician Nehanda said: "It's so sad that such a simple but important statement is seen as controversial..."I really love being a woman and a female artist"Me too @Adele me too I really hope she doesn't apologise for this..."

While someone else responded: "#Adele big up to you Adele amazing Woman and proud to be a woman! Well done, well deserved. RESPECT."