The linguistic distinction between “actress,” “actor” goes beyond sexism

[Joe Carillo]

In an article he wrote for The Los Angeles Times on the eve of the 82nd Oscar Academy Awards last March 7, Dennis Dutton, philosophy professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, took occasion to answer a perennial question: Why differentiate between actor and actress in awarding Oscars when the Academy doesn’t take sex into account in designating best art direction or best editing?

Dutton says there’s more to the linguistic distinction between “actress” and “actor” than mere sexism or stereotyping. “There are roles that are not interchangeable, either historically or biologically,” he argues. “This means that the sex of actresses and actors is intrinsic to their work in ways that the sex of a doctor is not…Central casting does not send a petite young woman to play a sumo wrestler, or a muscular hunk to play someone's sweet aged mother. This isn’t sexism; it is the human condition.”

He adds: “On stage and on the screen, rest assured that none of it will ever be effectively played by unisex acting persons. We need men and we need women. We need actors and we need actresses.”

Read Dennis Dutton’s “Oscar isn’t sexist” in The Los Angeles Times now!

[hill roberts]

Exactly my point when I was having the same discussion with my fb friends a fortnight or so ago. Why on earth do these feminists create such a silly idea, impose it on the women worldwide, knowing that these gullible women would believe their own mischievous rendezvous with words and tickling their sensitive senses to the salient commodity called the "mind". The Feminist movement leaders have a lot to answer for and I think they should re-think their idea of "equality"...They have fought hard for it and yet, a huge gap in salaries and wages between men and women remain. They moan the fact that men don't open doors for them, don't wait for them to sit down, don't carry the shopping bags for them---but yes, the same women-moaners--yes, that's what they are---rather insufferable in their personal torture to be considered equal to men---now believe that some of their self-imposed credo to be considered as such, was ill-thought. Here in Britain, they now long for the good old days of meeting men who behave in a cavalier/gentlemanly  manner.While men misbehave and overlook such nonsense, British women are softening up to make way for a more agreeable way to be treated equally and at the same time, be thought of as womanly. What is important to remember in the Spanish language is the fact that there is still gender-separation/distinction. We still call a female actress "actriz" and "actor" for actor, "nino/a", "profesor/a," "hermano/a",and I don't need to go on that this language will never every change, thank goodness. How can we forget the word Chairman/woman, now butchered into "Chair"---would I like to be called a furniture just because the feminists demanded equality? ::)How foolish it would be to follow such a hideous line of thinking. Paart 2 follows

[hill roberts]

Part 2. I still bemoan the fact that the title "Miss" is now shortened to a meaningless " Ms. I have no memory of being impressionable when this title was shortened, one of the very early words re-invented by the Feminist Movement in the early 70's. This, for me, was a spiteful act by those women who were full of their own self-loathing and their lack of self-belief. It is indeed a way for these women who, for reasons that puzzle me to this day, would consider changing a regal title of "Miss" is manageable by removing the vowel. Hah, perhaps, they had foreseen text messaging to be the way forward in the 21st century. The recovery to bring back "Miss" is far from over and I will just have to relish the thought that I am equally loathesome of their contemptuous behaviour of likening themselves to Braveheart without the swords and knives. There is no repetitious message from their end about salaries/wages which truly separates men from women. This is the old enemy, which for me should be settled, once and for all, if it is equality these feminist women are after. Not changing words to suit them and their silly whims, all for the sake of tiresome arguments to be on equal footing with men.