Male actor comes out as trans, now referred to as an actress…

[EastWestWhosBest]

when I thought the word actress was quietly being dropped.

The BBC has been referring to female actors as, well, actors but now Tommy here is female the word actress is used again.

13 Reasons Why star Tommy Dorfman comes out as transgender www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57940888

Getting I don’t care. I’m just not interested.

I got deleted too. Can’t say much at all about this subject it seems. Someone’s obviously ploughing through any threads and reporting everything. Hi 👋

Can I say

That for many actresses esp young, the attention from pics with eg breasts visible is an understandle route to go down.

However many actresses have regretted it when older as they felt it led to typecasting, was somewhat exploitative, and also can cause difficulties when you get older as once you're firmly in the section, good for playing attractive young woman, it makes it harder to be considered when you get older.

I think 30ish is the usual cutoff in Hollywood for eg.

There's also the point many actresses have raised, ones who have gone down that route themselves. That later they feel they contributed to a situation where young actresses are pushed into this sort of thing as they are told it will raise their profile etc.

I have no idea of the plans this actress has, I'm speaking in general. Stacks of older actresses have commented at length about all this so I think it's reasonable to raise.

Three things that are a bit odd -

The pose with the dog
The very short dress. It's hot at the moment so fair enough, but if a hostess answered the door in thst I'd be going
This sentence - "I'm thinking about how I can infuse my trans body into film and television", she said.

Kind of an odd thing to say. Why not just say something ' I'm looking forward to playing female roles' or something? Why is there talk of infusing one's body places??

The thing is I don’t know who this person is or care about their gender of choice.

What I found odd is the use of actress when I have noticed it being used less in recent years.

Agree the term actress has been in decline for ages.

Female actors feel the term kind of has a very different flavour to actor and I think it's a fair point.

Loads of jobs have no longer got the it's a man/ woman indicators in general.

An actor. On so many levels

I do feel sad to read their marriage has ended over this.
They always end in a nice, respectful way dont they, not the screaming matches regular (non famous) people's relationships end in!

@NiceGerbil

Agree the term actress has been in decline for ages.

Female actors feel the term kind of has a very different flavour to actor and I think it's a fair point.

Loads of jobs have no longer got the it's a man/ woman indicators in general.

I don't really understand what removing the "ess" from a job title really does. Obviously there is a large sex pay gap in the field but is changing the job title to the masculine default really going to change that?

In many other sectors, a different title altogether has been adopted (at least in theory, even if the traditional terms are still used in practice by the public). Waiter/waitress has become server, waiting staff or similar. Steward/stewardess has become flight attendant.

I'm not an actor so can't comment past what I've read said by female actors about it.

I'm sure there is stuff online.

On the more general discussion around what does it do (any jobs) then it's a big topic that usually gets into a bit of an argument so would derail this thread!

If you want to start a thread about it I'll be happy to discuss

What else would you call an actor in common parlance, though? I mean, it doesn't especially bother me if someone uses the 'ess' ending. I can see both arguments from the female perspective on that one.
But none of the perspectives apply to this person, because they are not female and have not ever faced the drawbacks of the default male.
In fact, all this person has faced is a helpful rise in profile.

In general i have seen that using the feminine word for various things is popular with some groups.

That person looks pretty euphoric.

I think the article also said that they had made a film with Lena Dunham playing a trans character.
Given the hoo-ha there's been every time a non-trans actor is cast, I suspect there probably is a growing niche for trans actors and actresses

I think it’s only a niche though. That is a very flattering photograph used, if you scroll back they have a very male physique.

I wonder how male actors will feel doing sex scenes with Tommy.

That black dress really does not work for me.

I've no idea who they are but the bullshit is strong with this one in this article about the break up of the marriage:
"“I love him so much, but we’ve been learning that as a trans woman, what I’m interested in is not necessarily reflected in a gay man. So we’ve had incredible conversations to redefine our relationship as friends,”

t.co/833aOfTDDf

*Dorfman and Zurkuhlen still frequently post about one another on social media. But the actor explained that their relationship changed over the past year. “The types of romantic partnerships I seek out are different,” Dorfman began.

“I was in a nine-year relationship in which I was thought of as a more male-bodied person, with a gay man. I love him so much, but we’ve been learning that as a trans woman, what I’m interested in is not necessarily reflected in a gay man. So we’ve had incredible conversations to redefine our relationship as friends,” she continued*

I wonder how that narrative would be different if Tommy was married to a woman?

Translation: "I want to shag either straight men or men who are prepared to play along with me being a woman"

I was thinking more about the kinds of pressures that Zurkuhlen might be subject to - and whether a 'let's just be friends' would be acceptable.

Why call actresses “female actors” when we don’t call actors “male actresses”? It’s just more of the “men are default”.

What’s wrong with being called “actress”?

I don't use 'female actor' fwiw. I say actor. Specifying the sex of the actor is entirely superfluous. Both men and women can be actors.

The performance of femininity (floaty arms, demure glancing at the floor, gazing etherally into the distance) is eye rollingly offensive. I don't do any of that shit, am I womaning wrong?

I, like others had absolutely no clue who this person was. Now Tommy is all over news outlets and the twitter account of Time magazine fgs. So if nothing else that's an effective profile raise then.