Call me actor not actress

[Deltoids1]

Whilst I can understand to a certain extent why Cate Blanchett does not want the name of her job to be defined by her sex, I’m a little puzzled why she would want to move away from separate awards for men and women.
If we had an equal world where men and women had genuine parity then I could understand it, however we don’t and I worry that this push will just end up biting Cate on her bum, with all the awards being won by men as the industry is so male dominated.

www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/03/cate-blanchett-says-she-would-rather-be-called-an-actor-than-an-actress

As if to prove the point, the Oscar winner asked reporters if there was a female equivalent of the Italian word “maestro”, only to be told there wasn’t

In Spanish there is Maestro and Maestra

Maestro (/ˈmaɪstroʊ/; from the Italian maestro [maˈestro; maˈɛstro], meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestri, feminine: maestra). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiquitous use of Italian musical terms.
en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki › Maestro
Maestro - Wikipedia

I know what she means though. I come from the same milieu as she does (same school even) and ‘actress’ just wasn’t a word we used.

Obviously we need to divide awards into male and female actors though. It’s well known that there are more and better roles for men. I don’t know what planet she’s on there and can only hope that she’s been misquoted somewhat.

That said, I suspect her career and the people around her have led to her being blissfully ignorant of what things are really like and how most people (still) think.

Maybe we could call male actors actresses? Why should the male version be the default?

I have slightly moved away from Cate’s position and gone back to using actor and actress, because I see no problem whatsoever with someone’s sex being noted in the job title. The problem is when that negatively affects how they are treated. I am not opposed to neutral language, but equally I think that it should be fine to use sexed language.

Is there something shameful about being female? Are we still at the stage of thinking we must all try harder to be like men? Is being an actor somehow more serious or prestigious than being an actress?

It doesn’t seem to stop the majority of female “actors” having to conform to stereotypical ideals of appearance, age and behaviour which are appealing to men. Nor does it seem to have prevented all the horrors of male power in that industry. Nor does it seem to have made much difference in the pay disparity. What does it achieve to use a male word to describe a woman?

This call for gender neutral language just props up the existing sexist structures Cate apparently wants to dismantle. I'm disappointed that the woman that brought us Mrs America cannot see that.
As PP have said, male is the default.

I thought this was a thing way before? I remember a boyfriend at college had a friend who was an actor (and she’s get miffed if anyone called her an actress). This was in the 80s.

All very good points. I suppose I see ‘actress’ as a bit of a made-up word (no idea if this is true etymologically mind you). We don’t have words like ‘doctress’ and ‘pilotess’; ‘authoress’ came and went, and an ‘adventuress’ is not at all like an adventurer!

Bear in mind, as I say, that it’s really not a word that was used when and where I grew up. I was rather taken aback when I moved to the UK and saw ‘actress’ so widely used. So as I say we’re probably coming at this from quite different backgrounds.

Just in case I haven’t made myself abundantly clear: Australians in general, and certainly in the time/place Blanchett and I grew up, tend to say ‘actor’ rather than ‘actress’ for both men and women. It’s not something I’ve consciously switched to; it’s a difference in dialect between Australia and the UK.

As far as the term ‘actress’ is concerned I don’t see a problem and as someone said on this thread it was a ‘thing’ in the 80s to self describe in such a way. I remember thinking that acting was something you did and that there was no need to designate the sex of the person doing it. That’s fair enough. But of course it’s a ‘loaded’ statement now because of gender identity politics and because of the awards status.

Doesn’t the word ‘actress’ have historical connotations linked to prostitution? I can get behind the idea that we don’t need different words for males and females doing the same job, but agree that, given the industry bias, doing away with separate female award categories will just mean more men receiving awards.

She's got too much time on her hands!

Looking forward to the Best Actor (Male) and Best Actor (Female) categories at future awards ceremonies.

@deydododatdodontdeydo

Looking forward to the Best Actor (Male) and Best Actor (Female) categories at future awards ceremonies.

But what about all of the other sexes?

Surely we have to get rid of all the sex subdivisions now and just have the best Actor awards. Perhaps it should be split by film genre and move away for any sex subdivision as surely it's irrelevant?

Surely we have to get rid of all the sex subdivisions now and just have the best Actor awards. Perhaps it should be split by film genre and move away for any sex subdivision as surely it's irrelevant?

Ideally, but that is only 'fair' (whatever that means in the context of an awards ceremony) if the opportunities within the industry is the same for men and women, which it's not. Loads of films are still led by men, and a lot of iconic roles were played by men. It is just another way for women to miss out to men because they don't have the same access to opportunities.

This reminded me of the discussion in Ways if Reading which was published in 1992. There is often a negative sexual connotation of the female equivalent which is why there was such a strong push to gender neutral job descriptions.

The downside to gender neutral language is that people often automatically assume astronaut, firefighter, doctor, police officer are male.

But what about all of the other sexes?

Good point. Best Actor (Human) is the only way.

I could understand it, however we don’t and I worry that this push will just end up biting Cate on her bum, with all the awards being won by men as the industry is so male dominated.

On the other hand, perhaps, the actor/actress categories hide sexism.

Its very obvious that women are under represented in other categories like Best Director, but if its always possible to point to female Oscar winners, the extent of male domination is hidden.

But what about all of the other sexes?

There are only two sexes.

Not been here long?

Yes to separate award categories for m and f actors; no to separate terms for them. In English, we don't use separate gendered nouns for professions like athlete, teacher, lawyer, engineer, priest, nurse, driver, carer, advisor, doctor, clerk, etc etc. Why hang on to an outdated term like actress when we no longer use poetess, authoress, policewoman, governess? The mere sound and feel of those terms show how out of sync actress has become.