Actor

[Lopéz]

English doesn't have gendered grammatical nouns or whatever it's called.
Try being me and not saying the right en or et for every word and the odd look you get when you accidentally called the table a he and not a she....

Same, our adverts for OTC medicine have disclaimers at the end saying "For medical advice speak to your male doctor/female doctor/male chemist/female chemist"

Announcements in supermarkets say "Lieber kunden und kundinen" (dear male customers and female customers)

But then in German everything has a male/female/neutral gender. Some of them fairly illogical:

The skirt (masculine)
The dress (neutral)
The girl (neutral)

 

[uber soldat]

I blame the fatties.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Maybe you should write into GBNews and ask them?

 

[potatolord]

English doesn't have gendered grammatical nouns or whatever it's called.
Try being me and not saying the right en or et for every word and the odd look you get when you accidentally called the table a he and not a she....

Yeah, i wonder I this might be it.

Could be some sort of hangover from French, which also has separate gendered nouns (acteur, actrice)?

Lots of languages do this. For example, while Welsh has a single word for actor, it has separate words for a male teacher (athro) and female teacher (athrawes).

So, it would just be a reflection of the historical development of the language.

 

[aVdub]

I asked the same question to my Fisherthems last week and thems couldn't see a problem with it.

 

[ElliorR]

I have always assumed it was to differentiate for awards, Best (supporting) Actor + Best (supporting) Actress even though they don't differentiate for any other categories that I am aware of.

 

[Hagar]

King and Queen, Lord and Lady but Barons and Baronesses, Dukes and Duchesses. I believe (from Civ) that Poland had female kings but the aristocracy is a law unto itself.

 

[adidan]

Ok I'll settle this.

OP asked who made this decision? Well, it was me. Get over it, I don't care.

They act, they're actors. Simple. I've had to streamline the language ever since people started making new words up.

 

[ElliorR]

Ok I'll settle this.

OP asked who made this decision? Well, it was me. Get over it, I don't care.

They act, they're actors. Simple. I've had to streamline the language ever since people started making new words up.

That is mustivatedly conflangatedly untrue.

 

[arknor]

At least it's more consistent if its done away with gender in all of then. Just less confusing tbh.

its probablky got something to do with where the words came from.

Like all German nouns have genders, as do some verbs and adjective's

 

[Brazo]

In such cases I normally ask to speak to the manageress.

 

[StevieP]

For some unknown reason "they" seem to have the loudest voice and the rest of us are too polite to offer a different opinion.

 

[dowie]

Because of woke, innit!

(j/k, blame this one on regular political correctness)

Randomly, in English, someone decided that some profession requires a gender, waitress, actress, policewomen (as above), who knows and also don't really care. It's not really important. At least it's more consistent if its done away with gender in all of then. Just less confusing tbh.

I'm not so sure about that - actor/actress wasn't exactly known to be a distinction that confused people if anything the change to calling everyone "actor" is more likely to do that. Funny how the default move is to then assume the male description.

Also re: policewomen; Police Officer or Police Constable is the job but "policeman" was a colloquial term.

 

[adidan]

That is mustivatedly conflangatedly untrue.

That's a poo faced meany thing to say

 

[GGizmo]

I think it was to be politically correct. It happened around the same time as people wanting to change chairman to chairperson.

As for the other occupations with no gender. It's likely because there was an insignificant amount of women doing those occupations.

 

[Thekwango]

Next question.

Why so put out by a question?

 

[Mr Badger]

I think it was to be politically correct. It happened around the same time as people wanting to change chairman to chairperson.

Rather than "chairperson" don't you just drop the "man" to make it genderless, so the title becomes "chair"? Or possibly "corner sofa" for the aspirational.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Teacher, Politician, Engineer, Architect, Pilot, Photographer, Painter, Scientist, Chef, solider, sailor, solicitor, barrister, mechanic, dentist plus loads don't have a gender.

Randomly, in English, someone decided that some profession requires a gender, waitress, actress, policewomen (as above), who knows and also don't really care. It's not really important. At least it's more consistent if its done away with gender in all of then. Just less confusing tbh.

It’s probably the fault of those pesky Normans bringing over their medieval French language with them as everything in French has a gender. Sometimes not the gender you’d expect, but as with all things French, c’est compliqué.

 

[I cant post photos]

I always liked that actor and actress differentiated between men and women. There was something charming about women having their own reference, instead of being just like the men, like in every other profession. Added a certain air of success and allure.


Not particularly bothered that it's changed, but I did most certainly notice it gradually phase out over the years.

 

[Zefan]

Just refuse the nonsense and continue to use the correct terms.


Oh and also

Who is making these decisions for us?