Althouse: "If you're going to de-sex the awards into subdivisions of Best Actor — if you're all actors, and the gender doesn't matter..."

January 28, 2008

"If you're going to de-sex the awards into subdivisions of Best Actor — if you're all actors, and the gender doesn't matter..."

"... then why not just give one prize, eligible to every performer in a leading role?"

Asks Chris Pizzello.

Yes, why all this sex segregation? Are women and men separate categories or aren't they? If you want two categories, why not drama and comedy?

Or does the Screen Actors Guild just want us to start thinking of "actress" as an insult? The women are quite different — but let's have some less retrograde terminology? Yet neologisms seem mocking or ludicrous.

Actmen and actwomen... dramamen... oh, it makes me sick....

64 comments:

former law student said...: Waitron! Another martini!; 1/28/08, 9:58 AM
rhhardin said...: So, how long have you been a server, honey?; 1/28/08, 10:00 AM
Roger J. said...: I think Mr. Pizzello's de-genderizing the awards suggestion is a great idea. Acting is acting, no? The only time awards should be "genderized" are in areas such as athletics where there are clear differences such as muscle mass.; 1/28/08, 10:04 AM
MadisonMan said...: Acting is acting, but roles definitely differ between the genders. Maybe they should be Best Actor in a Male Role and Best Actor in a Female Role. Someone like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie could win twice!

Male Actor and Female Actor seem like incredibly stilted contrivances.; 1/28/08, 10:10 AM
walter neff said...: I was once waited on by Geena Davis when she worked at the Coffee shop down by Union Square. She was so tall and didn't wear make-up, she looked like a guy. Of course she didn't have the tits she has now. Or those pouty lips. Surgery is destiny.; 1/28/08, 10:14 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: "Female actor"? Jeez, next they'll make us start calling Hillary a "female dog."; 1/28/08, 10:16 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Isn't the article by Richard Corliss?; 1/28/08, 10:16 AM
Bissage said...: As outdated as actress is today, it was very much an improvement over actrix.

Say it three times fast.

actrix, actrix, actrix.

Heh.; 1/28/08, 10:22 AM
Swifty Quick said...: Just as I can see the difference between men and women, I can see the differences between actors and actresses and their art. Modern political correctness having bleached that ability to discern out of the younger generations goes down on my ledger as a net loss.; 1/28/08, 10:36 AM
Roger J. said...: George: you are correct--I didn't even look at the by line when I read the piece!; 1/28/08, 10:45 AM
paul a'barge said...: I'm in favor of any suggestion that would reduce the number of Hollywood glitterati awards by 1/2.; 1/28/08, 10:48 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, Richard Corliss is the author of the linked article. I wonder who this Chris Pezillo is, though. Also, I DEMAND that Althouse apologize to Richard Corliss...who was being facetious in any case...; 1/28/08, 10:52 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: "If you're going to de-sex the awards into subdivisions of Best Actor — if you're all actors, and the gender doesn't matter..."

Well considering Kate Blanchet was able to credibly pass herself off as Bob Dylan this statement says a lot.

Considering Kate is smoking hot and Dylan is butt fugly, I think the makup artists should get an award too.; 1/28/08, 10:54 AM
Ron said...: Maybe the distinction should be between Fluff (of either gender) or Real Acting.; 1/28/08, 11:05 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Maybe the distinction should be between Fluff (of either gender) or Real Acting.

Heh, well that pretty much disqualifies about 95% of the Hollywood set.; 1/28/08, 11:09 AM
john said...: Suppose it did. We would then have to track the yearly frequency of the sex of the winners. Every 10 or so years the awards would have to be "corrected" (balanced out genderwise) to avoid creating a new victim category.

"Javier Bardem ... won for Best Supporting Actor Who Happens to Have a Penis." lol; 1/28/08, 11:12 AM
Maxine Weiss said...: In 2004 Caroline Kennedy endorsed John Kerry, ---said John Kerry reminded her of her father.

In 1984, the Kennedys endorsed Walter Mondale---said Mondale was exactly like JFK.

The Kennedys can't pick a winner any more than the Democratic party can.

The one person who actually won an election Arnold....they never endorsed !

(Ooops, am I off-topic again?); 1/28/08, 11:23 AM
walter neff said...: It has been reported tha Brad Pitt started as s fluffer. Of either gender.; 1/28/08, 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...: I still say actress. I say Merry Christmas. I say mankind, too.

I'm an iconoclast.; 1/28/08, 12:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Despite years of speech therapy I still say actress with a slight lisp.

Some psychologist is going to tag something on that with my shyness perhaps back then. they would be wrong.

I would tell them it taught me in the third grade to read ahead quickly to find passages which did not have many of the sounds I could not pronounce correctly. Then I would raise my hand for reading aloud when I knew that passage would come up. Of course, if it really was a good story I would lose my place and not know where we were. Then I would have to be embarassed that I wasn't paying attention when I was really paying hyperattention.

Presently, I don't read many books anymore straight through, let alone talk much aloud to anyone but myself. I do check them for passages when I need them and get sidetracked just as easily cause I like thumbing through and sometimes finding sideline notes in the passages that somebody wrote here and there.

I hope the cognitive people are taking notes and making corrections for me to keeping on task.; 1/28/08, 12:18 PM
ricpic said...: "Are men and women separate categories...?"

Yes.; 1/28/08, 12:21 PM
walter neff said...: Senator Robert Byrd worked as a racial fluffer on the set of "The Birth of a Nation." He taught the actors a lot of bad words about black people. That's why he was originally elected majority leader. But we shouldn't mention that. It clashes with our narrative.; 1/28/08, 12:30 PM
Tibore said...: Actress... (*sigh*)... what's wrong with the term?

When I think of an "actress", I don't think of anything diminutive or secondary. I think of the Great Dames of cinema past, those incredible personalities who smoked, drank, looked men in the eye and told them how it was.

What's wrong with celebrating the differences between men and women? I know you can argue all acting is just acting, but not all actors are "actors".; 1/28/08, 12:44 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Thus the SAG show had the sacred duty of reminding people what these orgies of self-congratulation are for: to parade famous flesh. It meant to brand on viewers' minds the impression all Hollywood actors want to make: We look faaaaabulous!

This is the most intelligent and true paragraph in the whole article.

The PC stuff is non-sense. There is noting wrong with actor or actress, unless of course, your brain is infected with PC bacteria.

If they were serious- Hollywood is never serious- there would be an award for best performance. Period. That would end the argument; 1/28/08, 1:15 PM
walter neff said...: The only Great Dane of the cinema who is still active is Scooby Doo. Of course he started out as a fluffer for Lassie. Who was an actress pretending to be an actor. A transgendered canine. There should be a category for that with Flecity Huffman winning the award.; 1/28/08, 1:19 PM
walter neff said...: Sorry, I misspelled Ms. Huffman's name. It should be "Felicity" or alternatively "Fleacity." That of course is her canine name.; 1/28/08, 1:23 PM
Unknown said...: Hello. I would like to repeat mindless cliches about the horrors of political correctness and how awful Hollywood is, and this seems like a good place.; 1/28/08, 1:27 PM
Tibore said...: "The only Great Dane of the cinema who is still active is Scooby Doo..."

Huh? Did you all read my post? I said Grape Dame! As in, the wife of the guy on the left in this picture!!

... or was it the wife of the guy on the right?... no, I don't know how you fluff a fruit, why the hell you asking?...; 1/28/08, 1:31 PM
walter neff said...: Ask titus, he can tell you how to fluff a fruit. That's the only reason Wally Cox ever had a career.
(cue a cliche about Marlon Brando).; 1/28/08, 1:35 PM
Superdad said...: The funny thing is normal people did know that the trix or ess suffixes meant small or diminutive until some oversensative freak told us it did and that it was offensive.

I think they are very helpful suffixes. They allow you to communite two more information with less words. In the case of trix, you know that person described is the agent of someone else and that the agent is a women. That is handing information.; 1/28/08, 2:14 PM
bill said...: This looks like a good place for a fluffernutter link.; 1/28/08, 2:15 PM
former law student said...: "Fleacity." is of course Ms. Huffman's canine name.

My canine name is "Fecal Lawn Scuper." Ann's is Afgh-Ann D'Awghouse.; 1/28/08, 2:19 PM
walter neff said...: I thought she was a Lhasa Altsohouse. You can tell by her shiny coat.; 1/28/08, 2:27 PM
Bissage said...: Fluffernutter?

Sounds like a patronage job.; 1/28/08, 2:30 PM
Unknown said...: Kamal, Vivek, Darshan, Tsing - identify the male and female actors here.
This is exactly the kind of feminism that is so grating and pointless to us non-americans. man-hole to person hole, its all pretty pointless and petty.; 1/28/08, 2:31 PM
walter neff said...: Are you a rider of Rohan? Cause only orcs and goblins can comment here. And hd, because he is a dwarf.; 1/28/08, 2:34 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: And hd, because he is a dwarf.

And here I thought he was Grima Wormtongue.; 1/28/08, 2:41 PM
Kirby Olson said...: If you're going to split the awards by gender, shouldn't you also have separate awards according to race and class?; 1/28/08, 2:42 PM
walter neff said...: Sorry, Mr. Hoosier, that would be Maxine's role. And she plays it all so well.; 1/28/08, 2:44 PM
Bissage said...: Gee, I guess that makes LOS the Mouth of Sauron.; 1/28/08, 2:53 PM
walter neff said...: And Doyle the anus of same.; 1/28/08, 2:55 PM
tjl said...: "separate awards according to race and class?"

Don't forget sexual orientation.; 1/28/08, 3:22 PM
blake said...: Mr. Neff,

Why the name change?; 1/28/08, 3:41 PM
walter neff said...: Not a name change. It's all in your mind. A name change is for cheaters. And I am not a cheater. And I always wear the same socks.; 1/28/08, 3:51 PM
walter neff said...: Besides, I want to take up actressing. So this is good practice.; 1/28/08, 3:54 PM
Roger J. said...: Walter Neff = the Fred MacMurray character in Double Indemnity and Trooper York could be John Wayne character in Rio Grande. Lots of coulds there, but clean socks or no, Neff nee York delivers comedy gold.; 1/28/08, 4:04 PM
walter neff said...: You suck Roger. Now I have to change my socks. I knew I wouldn't be good at actressing.; 1/28/08, 4:11 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Director/Directress

Executor/Executrix

Cheater/Cheatress; 1/28/08, 4:47 PM
former law student said...: Mater/Matrix ?!?; 1/28/08, 5:53 PM
Bissage said...: Oh, Maxine! You tricksy hobbit, you!; 1/28/08, 6:12 PM
Kirby Olson said...: TJL, shouldn't there be something about height, too? Separate awards for midgets and medium-sized, and very large people.

Perhaps thin, and then blubberbutts, as well.

Finally, like in children's soccer, maybe they should just give everybody an award so that no one's self-esteem suffers.; 1/28/08, 6:58 PM
tjl said...: "they should just give everybody an award so that no one's self-esteem suffers."

I did think about suggesting a category for "differently-abled" actors, so that the talentless wouldn't feel unjustly stigmatized. But on second thought, even in Hollywood there are limits to PC.; 1/28/08, 7:33 PM
Unknown said...: Wow...no new comments since 7:30?
Who could have anticipated that the usual sniggering misogyny would run out of steam so early in the evening?

Of course, maybe the reason Ann hasn't put up a new post is that the Beaujolais Nouveau wineboxes have arrived.

If so, this thread could be here, lying limp like a flounder, till tomorrow morning.; 1/28/08, 9:44 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Post master/post mistress

Steward/Stewardess

Waiter/Waitress

Tailor/Seamstress; 1/28/08, 10:22 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Launderer/Laundress; 1/28/08, 10:23 PM
john said...: Not yet jeweejewish. Just the bottomfeeders left. I guess everyone else was watching the SON by the POTUS. Not you though, right?; 1/28/08, 10:24 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Instructor/Instructress; 1/28/08, 10:43 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Jew/Jewess

Priest/Priestess; 1/28/08, 11:09 PM
former law student said...: Last time I heard "Jewess" was on SNL , in the late great Gilda Radner era:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8vXzoAN2fE; 1/29/08, 9:04 AM
Anonymous said...: To be a bit picky:

a seamstress and tailor do not do the same work. They are really quite different. The word seamstress means basically sewing up seams, which can be hard work in more elaborate designs, especially in dresses worn in the 40s and 50s as they had some rather intricate piecing.

A tailor must know how to shape fabric without using seems. There is women tailoring and there is women dressmaking. A man or woman could be a dressmaker. A man or woman could be a tailor? I'm not sure about that specificatons before the 70s.; 1/29/08, 9:06 AM
Bissage said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/29/08, 12:30 PM
Bissage said...: Dressmaker/Chicktrix?; 1/29/08, 12:33 PM
Anonymous said...: nudist/knew distance; 1/29/08, 12:46 PM
Mr. B. said...: Mr. and Mrs. B. once saw a play at the Globe done by an all female cast. At first it was a little strange, but then it became fascinating.

Then there are the "pants roles" in opera...

Single sex acting award -> go for it! And the women don't have to be afraid that they are going to be shorted, witness Dame Judy Dench, just for a start.

Ciao,

Bonzo; 1/30/08, 7:33 PM