Actor or Actress?- Page 2
Actor or Actress?
#25Actor or Actress?
Posted: 3/29/19 at 8:22am
Gender-neutral "actor" is my default. As others have pointed out, we don't gender other professional terms. That said, if someone self-describes as an "actress," that's her choice.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#26Actor or Actress?
Posted: 3/29/19 at 8:27am
(FYI This will be the last post I make in this thread, as I simply don’t have the energy or time to devote to this anymore. I actually promised myself last year that I wouldn’t get into any more social justice arguments on this board, and I’ve already broken that promise, haha)
I think the argument about how to solve the problem at the Tonys has sort of run its course, so I’m not going to make a case for any particular solution at the moment, but I feel compelled to clear up some misconceptions about what you’re suggesting:
Gavenston and Judy, you are both correct to point out that gender is a spectrum, and you’re right that it’s common for NB people to “lean” in either a more masculine or more feminine direction. But both of you have misinterpreted the term “non-binary,” which NOT mean that someone is directly in the middle of male and female. It simply means that they are somewhere - ANYWHERE - in between on the spectrum. By the literal definition of the term, their gender is not on a binary. So just because a NB person tends more toward masculine traits or feminine traits, does not mean that they should be forced to choose one of the two genders at the Tonys, because that puts them back into the binary - and the whole point is that they are not on the binary in the first place. It would be a means of ignoring their “in betweenness” so to speak, which is essential to their gender identity.
I think we’ve all been fairly respectful to each other in this debate so far, and I’m grateful for that. But Gaveston, calling any non-binary person’s identity a “fad” is extremely disrespectful, reductive, and wildly misguided.
As I said, this will be my last post in this thread.
John Adams
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/13
#27Actor or Actress?
Posted: 3/29/19 at 9:29am
Both terms are acceptable. There isn't a need make a rule, and there is no one policing the usage of either word.
"Actress" comes in handy when a gender distinction needs to be utilized (like in categories for awards). It's just a more economic choice to use one word, rather than two (female actor).
John Adams
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/13
#28Actor or Actress?
Posted: 3/29/19 at 10:11am
JBroadway said: "The statistics of non-binary people within the world of the arts are higher than that of the rest of the world, and the numbers will only grow in the coming years."
Source? These statements seems like a confusion of fact and opinion.
JBroadway said: "Having no category for non-binary people IS exclusionary, and therefore IS transphobic."
It can't be "exclusionary" when an individual chooses to opt out of the system. I would argue that it's respectful of their choice. I also think you are confusing trans folks with non-binary. Trans people TRANSition from one gender to the other. Non-binary folks elect not to be recognized as either.
JBroadway said: "By the literal definition of the term, their gender is not on a binary."
"Binary" is not a noun. It is impossible for the "literal" definition to be, "not on a binary".
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