I think I have worked out why you call some female thespians 'actors' and some 'actresses'.

'You referred to the very feminine Jane Lynch as an 'actor' last week. 'Dear sir (probably!),' began a letter to our magazine editor. 'As always, use common sense: a piece about the late film director Carlo Ponti was edited to say that in his early career he was 'already a man with a good eye for pretty actors.' As the Guardian's readers' editor pointed out in the subsequent clarification: 'This was one of those occasions when the word 'actresses' might have been used.''Īmen to that, but it would seem that we are not applying the term actor consistently and this has led, curiously, to an accusation of ageism. 'There is normally no need to differentiate between the sexes – and if there is, the words male and female are perfectly adequate: Lady Gaga won a Brit in 2010 for best international female artist, not artiste, chanteuse, or songstress. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper: 'An actress can only play a woman. It was the guide's view that 'actress comes into the same category as authoress, comedienne, manageress, 'lady doctor', 'male nurse' and similar obsolete terms that date from a time when professions were largely the preserve of one sex (usually men). When the Observer and the Guardian published their new joint style guide last year, this clause appeared: 'Use for both male and female actors do not use actress except when in name of award, eg Oscar for best actress.' It's a useful tool, but there is always the danger that, over time, a manual of sensible advice mutates into a tome of holy writ, its strictures applied blindly, leading to confusion – the very opposite of the guide's intended purpose. N ewspapers devise style guides for two reasons: to steer writers and editors through the trickier waters of the English language and to attempt (sometimes in vain) to apply some consistency in grammar, punctuation and spelling across the many thousands of articles published each year.

Actress