Actor or actress: who cares

[Cerveza mas fina]

My wife apparently, got into a debate about this last night

While Im not against language evolving I dont think its sad to do away with words that are rich in meaning

She thinks still using two words is a sign of the male patriarchy

[Assimilate]

smack her for her stupidity.

[Joe Molotov]

actperson

[Rufus]

English speakers can count themselves lucky to not have to deal with grammatical gender. Makes the few instances where this squabble even comes up look cute.

[shosta]

na na na na na na na na ACT-MAN

[Coax]

Reading briefly the etymology it seems it came from a combination of the Latin actus (act, action) and tor for the masculine suffix, with tress being the English adaptation of the Latin feminine equivalent. So I'm not sure that 'actress' is some feminine diminutive version of 'actor', if that was the contention. Hardly any expert of this though.

[agrajag]

English speakers can count themselves lucky to not have to deal with grammatical gender. Makes the few instances where this squabble even comes up look cute.

Grammatical gender is awesome. I find it hard to cry sexism when there are equal amounts of awesome feminine and masculine objects.

[thisismyusername]

Do what is trendy: Actx.

[Great Rumbler]

Gendered job titles are stupid.

[Nabbis]

I roll my eyes so hard they go through my skull anytime i hear arguments of patriarchy and it's causation from gender specific language.

[ToxicAdam]

I never liked gender-specific words for job titles. It doesn't make sense because they are still performing the same job. A comic is a comic, a singer is a singer and an actor is an actor.

Imagine if we applied the same idea in reverse. A male nurse becomes a Murse and a male secretary becomes an Administrative Liaison or some shit.

[agrajag]

Getting riled up about gendered job titles is also stupid.

[Yeti]

Distinguished thespian person

[Cerveza mas fina]

Lets say u are writing a story and you can use the word actress instaed of actor, it conveys more information but you can also leave it ambiguous, the wonders of a rich language

It would be stupid to let it go imho

[Tasty]

Actor was gender neutral when it came into the language, actress was something someone (probably Americans) tacked on later. So I'm cool with just going back to actor.

In fact I'm in favor of simplifying language in general. Why not.

[Tasty]

Lets say u are writing a story and you can use the word actress instaed of actor, it conveys more information but you can also leave it ambiguous, the wonders of a rich language

It would be stupid to let it go imho

The wonderful thing about languages like English is there's multiple ways to say the same thing. I'm sure writers will be able to manage if "actress" falls out of fashion, I mean they coped fine when society moved past "colored person."

[Cerveza mas fina]

Tasty you only speak one language aint that simple enough?

[agrajag]

Actor was gender neutral when it came into the language, actress was something someone (probably Americans) tacked on later. So I'm cool with just going back to actor.

In fact I'm in favor of simplifying language in general. Why not.

Citation needed.

[Tasty]

Actor was gender neutral when it came into the language, actress was something someone (probably Americans) tacked on later. So I'm cool with just going back to actor.

In fact I'm in favor of simplifying language in general. Why not.

Citation needed.

https://english.stackexchange.com/a/3350

That's what I got from it anyways lol. From Wiki:

After 1660 in England, when women first started to appear on stage, the terms actor or actress were initially used interchangeably for female performers, but later, influenced by the French actrice, actress became the commonly used term for women in theater and film.

So it was the Brits not the Americans, and both were used interchangeably at first. Making "actor" the only phrase that has been used for both genders since the beginning... so why not just use that.

[Huff]

[ToxicAdam]

Lets say u are writing a story and you can use the word actress instaed of actor, it conveys more information but you can also leave it ambiguous, the wonders of a rich language

It would be stupid to let it go imho

If you were writing a story, you'd have ample opportunity to allude to the sex of the characters. Either through their name or the gendered pronouns you'd use.



I guess it would matter if you we're writing a haiku.

[Cerveza mas fina]

But we already have a perfect word to describe female actor

Of course my wife had to take it further and ask me how we should call people that dont identify with any gender

[Tasty]

Programmeress

[Tasty]

Writeress

[Tasty]

Scientess

[Joe Molotov]

Dominatress

[agrajag]

Actor was gender neutral when it came into the language, actress was something someone (probably Americans) tacked on later. So I'm cool with just going back to actor.

In fact I'm in favor of simplifying language in general. Why not.

Citation needed.

https://english.stackexchange.com/a/3350

That's what I got from it anyways lol. From Wiki:

After 1660 in England, when women first started to appear on stage, the terms actor or actress were initially used interchangeably for female performers, but later, influenced by the French actrice, actress became the commonly used term for women in theater and film.

So it was the Brits not the Americans, and both were used interchangeably at first. Making "actor" the only phrase that has been used for both genders since the beginning... so why not just use that.

What about all the other languages where everything is gensered?  This whole thing seems like such silly splitting of hairs.

[Rufus]

Hairs have been and are being split vociferously
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_grammatical_gender

[Valkyrie]

 

[Steve Contra]

The plural of actors can be gender neutral, the opposite is not true. This is true of almost all gendered professional names.

[Cerveza mas fina]

The plural of actors can be gender neutral, the opposite is not true. This is true of almost all gendered professional names.

Ok?

[chronovore]

Gendered job titles are stupid.

But genderless ones sound lame, too. "Businessperson" -- Fuck that. Let's jump directly to "BUSINATOR" or "BUSINESSTRON."

[chronovore]

But we already have a perfect word to describe female actor

Of course my wife had to take it further and ask me how we should call people that dont identify with any gender

Actyr.

[naff]

When you get the same but flipped Recently I was told not using the correct gendered pronoun was a little offensive regarding waiter/waitress at lunch with a younger female friend. I just acknowledged it and validated. I know actor, waiter etc are traditionally gendered, but thought it was normal to just use them as neutral terms.

An argument i got a little embroiled in was the assertion that cultural appropriation was a term created by white people to shame other white people Didn't seem like it on googling.

[Madrun Badrun]

I just call them, with a Boston accent, actors and whores. 

[Tasty]

Whoress

[naff]

schlubess

edit: dw, we can all just be schlubs.

[naff]

Gendered job titles are stupid.

But genderless ones sound lame, too. "Businessperson" -- Fuck that. Let's jump directly to "BUSINATOR" or "BUSINESSTRON."

I am a businessperson in the work industry

[agrajag]

Waiter/waitress has been out of mode for years. It's server now.

[Madrun Badrun]

I just call them, with a Boston accent, slave girl - regardless of their gender. 

[El Babua]

Garsoness