Actor/actress?

[losgigs]

When did people start calling actresses 'actors'? Isn't a female actor an actress anymore? I was just googling Jack Davenport (Watching Breathless on ITV) and learnt that 'he is married to the actor Michelle Gomez'. It just sounds so WRONG!!

[weecalf]

Think maybe soaps are to blame now would you call some of the part players either actors or actresses

[boxtops]

I still call female actors actresses - but this is coming back to the thread the other day about whether you call a woman Chairman. Some titles seem more sensible than others, to have a female equivalent.

[bibblebub]

it's been like that for a number of years

[belindabee]

I often say "see you guys later !" regardless of the gender of those I'm saying it to. Modern world. Does it really matter ?

[losgigs]

I agree with you, boxy, and will continue to call them 'actresses'.

[factor-fiction]

It's part of a trend. For example, I haven't heard the term Manageress used in the work place for a long time, and in schools the term Head has replaced Headmaster/headmistress.

[Prudie]

I thought it was the actresses themselves that now want to be called actors as though that makes them serious professionals rather than bits of fluff. I also think it's daft.

[bookbinder]

... and a chairman is now a chairperson or (sharp intake of breath) a mere chair.

[factor-fiction]

But midwives are still called midwives I think

[Psybbo]

And, as I said, we are all human

[losgigs]

True, factor, and that applies to male midwives too. Don't think I've ever heard them called anything else.

[Caran]

Mid husbands would sound really strange.

[jno]

midwife means "with the wife" (like the German word mit, meaning with), it doesn't mean he/she is a wife themselves.

[2sp_]

When I milked cows for a living (yes, I really did), I preferred to be called a dairyman rather than a dairymaid.

[jno]

was Jeff Chandler an actress?

[DaisyNonna]

Actors, actresses. Yet another way of making English easier for lazy children. Or feminists on the stage or screen. Equality! When life is all about difference.

[2sp_]

At the risk of sounding stupid, who is Jeff Chandler???

That's the second time I've seen the name on a thread tonight.

[Calibax]

I remember seeing an interview with the actor Tony Britton about 25 years ago, insisting that his wife was a sculptor and not a sculptress so I don't think the trend is particularly recent.

[losgigs]

No, Jeff Chandler was definitely male! I think Jordyboy was just stating his opinion (not totally relevant though).
Thanks for the explanation though jno, I was trying to work out the derivation of midwife.