「俳優」と「女優」

男女平等とかいう話を持ってくる訳じゃないんだけど、男性の俳優は一般的に「男優」とは呼ばずに単に「俳優」と呼ぶのに対して、女性の俳優は「女優」って言うじゃん。それってなんか俺は嫌なんだよね。「女優」という言葉は差別だとは思わないけど、不必要な区別だと思うのね。役の性別によって「女優」と分けるのは当たり前だし必要な事だけど、それなら男性俳優も「男優」と呼ぶべきだと思うの。どっちも演技をするのを仕事にしている人たち、つまり性別にに関わらずどちらもプロなんだし、そもそも「俳優」という言葉には特にどっちの性別を表す意味はないでしょう。（「女優」という言葉は女性の俳優を表す言葉(もちろん)として一般的に使われてるけど、「男優」って言葉は一般的には「主演男優賞」とかで「男優」だけではあんまり、対義語の「女優」ほどは使われてないと思う。「AV男優」くらいしか。これは「AV俳優」とも言うのかな。まぁAVに関しては俳優が男性か女性かは大きな違いだしね。）だから俺は個人的には「男性俳優」と「女性俳優」と言いたい。そして世間でもそうなって欲しい。今「女優」と言われその肩書きを自分でもそう名乗ってる人にも、「自分は俳優」だと言うようになって欲しい。

あと面白い事に、英語でも "actor" と "actress" ってなって、男性の俳優か女性の俳優か違うんだよね。日本語でも言ういわゆる「俳優 (男性)」が "actor" で "actress" が「女優」。

「〜する人」って英語では "~er" とかになるじゃん。例えば "player" とか "singer." この言葉には "playess" とかみたく女性形は無いわけよ。英語では他にもいくつか、指すものは同じでも男性形と女性形がある「〜する人」"~o/er" みたいな言葉があるかと思うけど、少なくとも俳優に関しては日本語と共通してて面白いと思う。

英語は様々な言語が元になって出来た言語だから、言葉とか表現の由来になってる言語もそれぞれ様々なのね。だから、少なくとも現代の英語には男性形、女性形は無いけれど、現代の英語でも他の言語或はまだ英語という言語が出来て間もない頃のものが元になったであろう言葉で、指すものは同じものであってもその性別によって使い分けられてる言葉があるのね。例えば "prince (男の王)" と "princess (女の王)"、"hero (男の主人公)" と "heroine (女の主人公)" のように。

ラテン系の言葉、例えばフランス語とかスペイン語では名詞の語尾が、スペイン語を例にすると "~o" だったら男性名詞とか "~a" だったら女性名詞とかあるのね。例えばスペイン語では同じ「子供」って言葉でも男の子なら "niño" で、女の子なら "niña" というように。だから、語源はどの言語であれ英語では「〜する人」という意味になる "~er" や "~or" で終わる名詞は性別によって "or" や "er" の部分が変わるのかなとも思ったんだけど、"actor" 以外で "~or" と終わる名詞を見てみると、例えば「訪問者」という意味の "visitor" はそれが男性であっても女性であっても同じ。"~or" で終わる名詞以外の話をすると、「話者」という意味の "speaker" は男女関係なく一緒、「聞き手」という意味の "listener" も男女関係なく一緒。だから "actor" の "or" が「男性」を表す物ではないんじゃないかなと思ったの。でも "actress" の "ress" は明らかに女性形を表すものだよね。"princess" にもあるように。

My main post is the one in Japanese, not this in English since I was talking about how the term "俳優" is used in Japanese, which is usually used only for male actors. For female actors, a specific term "女優" is used. My argument is that since "俳優" itself does not literally have anything to do with the actors' sex, it's used for mostly only male actors in Japanese. Still though, if you want to specify that the actor's sex is male, you can use "男優," which is literally the opposite term of "女優." So, translation is the below. Keep in mind that I was taking about how "俳優," a Japanese word is used in Japanese, not "actor/actress" in English, although I mentioned "actor" and "actress" and other masculine/feminine nouns as a comparison to the Japanese terms.

I don't mean to bring this topic into such a thing as the equality of men and women, but I personally don't like it that "actor" is used mostly only for men.  That is, the term "actor" itself alone does not necessarily mean it's male, but in practice "actor" is used for pretty much male actors, no? (If that's not true, it's my lack of knowledge in English. You don't have to continue reading from here. lol It's only how I'm passionately talking about how female actors should be called just "actors" the same as male actors.) "Actress" being used for female actors is understandable because it's specifically for female actors just like "heroine" means "female hero," if you get what I'm saying. HOWEVER, what I mean is, I'd like to call male actors "male actors" and female actors "female actors," not "actors (male)" and "actress (female)" respectively by their sexes. All what I am saying is based on my idea that their job - acting as professionals - is a respectable job whether they are male or female. If somebody whose job is acting is female, it's still a professional job (if she's doing it as a professional). I can act, too, but I am not an actor because I am not a professional, after all. As for the roles that actors (male or female) play, it's necessary and reasonable that they separate male actors and female actors from each other by calling specifically female actors "actress" though. But still, unless the term "actor" literally means "female actor" by itself, it doesn't make sense calling actors that play female roles "actress" and calling those who play male actors "actors" because "actors" in English, unlike "男優" in Japanese, does not literally mean specifically "male actors," does it? In my understanding, when comparing Japanese and English, "actor" is like "俳優," which literally does not specify the actor's sex, "男優" specifically means "male actors" and "女優" specifically means "female actors."



The rest of what I wrote in Japanese, it feels too troublesome and complicated to write in English since I wrote what I was talking about in Japanese comparing English terms and other Latin origin languages. Don't comment on that part assuming what I wrote unless you understand what I wrote in Japanese well enough.

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