Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

hadleyeldo

Member Since

April 14, 2010

Total number of comments

1

Total number of votes received

8

Bio

Latest Comments

Actress instead of Actor

  • April 14, 2010, 2:48am

I just stumbled upon this site while looking for something else and love the idea and name of it.

On the issue of actor vs actress I suspect that the origin may lie somewhere with money. Historically male actors got paid vastly more money than their female colleagues for doing exactly the same thing - acting. It's possible that by calling themselves actors, the 'actresses' were attempting to redress this balance. If I'm wrong then I welcome any correction.

Personally, I prefer to use the distinction. I'm a man but my reason is not a sexist one. It's practical. Just think, when the award season comes around and people talk about Best Actor, they are not referring to the best of both men and women actors - only the men. If the women insist on dropping the 'ess' then I think the Academy should scrap the separate award categories and have one acting award open to all. I'm sure the women should soon drop their objections to being 'esses'!!