•September 15, 2021•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

Reader Bill Thomas served me up a softball question for last Sunday’s column before getting to the meat of his email.
At the risk of his hogging my attention, it’s a topic worth exploring in its own column.
Without further ado, the windup aaaand the pitch:
“How did the title ‘actor’ ever get applied to named women acting on stage and movies? Shouldn’t ‘actress’ be the correct term?” he asked.
Gulp.
“I recognize that an actor is defined as one who acts. An actress is defined as a woman who is an actor,” he wrote. “My traditional understanding is that ‘actor’ was used as the male’s title and actress was the female’s title. Do we need to designate a different title for men who act?”
This is a difficult topic.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.