Comments on: Female Actors

By: Winston Smith

Winston Smith — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:52:25 +0000

Nice try. Typical leftist projection won't get you very far here. The author is responding to the never ending and anal (since you like the "Spincter" mentaphors) nature of the pc drive to eliminate all "gendered" language. What's wrong with "stripperesses" for that matter? I could just as easily argue that we don't have a female version of stripper b/c our society is soooo sexist (reverent angry feminist sigh) that we just assume that all strippers are women. You want sexist, not to mention classist? I was a French minor and I remember that while there was a feminine form for mechanic in french, there was only the masculine noun allowed for doctor. I could jujitsu your leftist argument and say that all these pc ministrations of truth to reword feminine versions of nouns into the masculine, such as actress to actor, are "erasing" women and hence sexist.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:56:42 +0000

As one reply states, Actress refers to a “Actor who is Female” and that I believe is the problem. (personally, I don’t care). There is no term for a guy who is an actor. If your an man, your an actor, but if your a female, your talent has to be qualified with a term that says “An Actor who is Female”, like that is somehow makes her talent separate. Imagine if we called Obama something other that president because he is black. People would say, What’s wrong with that, it’s just a term for “A President that is black”

By: TE

TE — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:25:35 +0000

Personally, I like the term actress for the very reason you describe.

Unfortunately, I think you weaken your point by using the term “gender” instead of sex; as well as many others who have commented here. I find it interesting that while (rightly) commenting on how silly it is to NOT use the word actress, you fall into the trap you are describing by using the word “gender” instead of the word “sex”. Replace the word gender in your post with the word sex and your point will be much stronger for it.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:55:51 +0000

What a non issue. Can we throw it in the bin with the “Merry Christmas” vs “Happy Holidays” debate. I can’t believe people feel strongly enough to comment on silly stuff like this. (Darn it, I just did it too).

By: Z

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:36:23 +0000

Oh, BROTHER, was I happy to see this. I have never been able to understand why women who act suddenly wanted to be called MEN.
It’s not a put-down to be a woman, is it? Thanks for this piece….the craziness needs to stop.
I’m sure it’s some libber’s intent to equalize, but really, let’s face it, some women are BETTER actresses than their male counterparts are actors..rejoice! Be a PROUD WOMAN!….it’s like they’re embarrassed of femalehood. Silly and sad.

By: dan-o

dan-o — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:49:24 +0000

You can say “female actor” if you want. But it is incorrect English.

By: Zundfolge

Zundfolge — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:25:32 +0000

You guys who are afraid to identify yourselves may think you’re taking back Hollywood but you’re not.

This comes up occasionally on blogs and forums, and its frankly a silly argument.

I post under the name Zundfolge pretty much everywhere. Significantly more people know me as Zundfolge than Mike Biles (and after you hit google, no I’m not the self help guru/real estate agent in Austin, the cop in Florida or the Housing Ombudsman at some British university and I don’t play lacrosse).

If I were to post here under my real name, THAT would be more anonymous.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:01:45 +0000

Well i think it’s only natural that most feminists would like the world to be gender neutral- since most feminists i’ve met or seen on tv also appear to be gender neutral, themselves. I’ve also observed that modern feminists only seem to like when unattractive women succeed. If a woman is in any way sucessful, and somehow manages to retain some sort of physical beauty, she’s a traitor to the “female cause.” Meanwhile, women complain about sexism, and i pay higher car insurance rates because i’m a guy…. not because of my perfect driving record. It’s not ust feminism, it’s political correctness in general. Every “Group” has some problem. People just need to deal with it. But instead of finding a way to elevate themselves- they try to pull everyone else down.
The moral of my story here is: If there’s nothing to complain about- then find something to complain about- Then the world will give in to your demands…. just to shut you up!!!

By: sierra

sierra — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:16:56 +0000

What really bothers me is the widespread practice of using the word “woman” as an adjective, as in “woman candidate.” It always makes me think of “crazy woman drivers,” and wonder whether you’d likewise describe anyone as a “man candidate.”

By: Milad Sourial

Milad Sourial — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:14:21 +0000

This is a fantastic blog entry.
Cicely Tyson, Tantoo Cardinal and Meryl Streep are all incredible performers that you can’t take your eyes- off – they have such presence you follow them into the depths of the story beyond the page much less the edited film. Why is it that we see less and less of them and that Cicely and Tantoo are relegated to actresses of colour designation while Meryl is embraced as an actor of actors?

Then I think about a few of the younger performers that steal every scene they are in by just standing there- huge presence- tiny parts- they generally get supporting roles-in lackluster films- Im thinking of Lisa Bonet, Stacey Dash and Didi Pfeifer. Amazing actors and since they don’t get cast as the protagonist – why shouldn’t they be considered actors instead of actresses? Their performances are five times better than any males with such small roles. They draw more interest and viewers.
The term actor might also be a definition of the evolutionary novelty of a performer. Any woman can be an actress but a great performer is an actor -its too bad that piss poor male actors aren’t defined as actorless.