Actor or Actress? A Play on Words

I've been asking myself whether I should stop using the word "actress" and, if so, why I find it so difficult to do so. The argument, I have heard, is that the word emphasises the gender of the individual, rather than their ability; by calling Judi Dench an "actress" we are belittling her acting skills.

My immediate reaction is poppycock! When I call the Dame an actress I am stating that she is a woman who acts (and who does it damn well and who should play the role of the Queen 24 hours a day when Elizabeth Windsor decides it's time to put her feet up and watch the Yesterday Channel morning, afternoon and night). The Dame's talents and skills are renowned the world over and are, as we all know, irrespective of her gender.

Really? says a politically correct voice in my ear. If her gender is irrelevant, why not use a word which is gender-neutral, such as "actor"?

But "actor" isn't gender-neutral! I reply. An actor is a man, an actress is a woman. It's oranges and apples. They're both fruit. Neither is better than the other. They fulfil the same function in different ways. Why not retain both words?

Then another voice makes itself heard. This is the linguist in me, the young man who decades ago spent four years of his life studying language in all its forms and history. Language changes, he reminds me. Words come and go. So what if "actress" disappears? Many words are gender-neutral. We don't say "editress"; we don't have a word for female writer. We focus on the action not the gender. Why not with acting?

You're right, I tell myself. But there's a problem. I'm nearly 60 years old and everyone knows that the older you get the more difficult it is to adapt to some aspects of modern life. (Yes, I have a smartphone; yes, I have a plasma tv; yes, I vote Green; but there is much in this modern world which others accept with glee but which I find ugly and destructive.) Sixty years from now, when I'm dead, will I care whether Prunella Scales - a woman who plays Elizabeth II much better than that long-faced Helen Mirren - was once known as an actor or an acress? And the answer, of course, is no, of course I won't care.

So perhaps I should drop the word "actress". And maybe I will. But I'm not going to leap towards "actor". I much prefer "player", the word that has been in use since Shakespeare's time and probably long before then, the word once recommended by the Motion Picture Production Code in the US (well that's what Wikipedia says, but it doesn't provide a citation), the word that always has been gender-neutral. But forgive me if from time to time I talk about my favourite actress. It's a word that I will always have a fondness for.

(Food for thought: I finished writing the above and started looking on Google for an image to epitomise the word "actress". And what do I get? Page after page of comely young women pouting at the camera or otherwise emphasising their general attractiveness. This is not a problem for each individual woman, but when the overall definition of "actress" appears to be no more than a 25 - 30 year old person of the feminine gender trying to present themselves in the most alluring pose possible, then I begin to wonder whether those players who dislike the word have a point. Try it for yourselves; it's not surprising that I ended up with Bettie Boop.)