Thanks to Eugene W. Dillenburg for an intelligent, concise, informative
statement about female gender suffixes. The point that the "-ess" suffix
fell out of favor in some circles was well taken ("SOME" being a key
word). Indeed, some female actors still prefer "actress," as Eugene said
(it's shorter). Hans, a quick peek at the Academy Award ceremonies will
demonstrate that the word "actress" is alive and well in Hollywood. Yes,
you'll also find references to the generic use of "actors" for both male
and female performers, which perhaps represents a nice balance. But
reports of the demise of the "-ess" words are greatly exaggerated. What
I find puzzling is that some of the same folks (again, note the word
SOME) who prefer to use traditionally male terms like "actor" to
encompass both sexes (do I have to say "genders?") object to the generic
use of "he," "man" and "mankind" for the human race, etc. This
demonstrates not only the inconsistencies and quirkiness of language,
but the inconsistency and quirkiness of people in general. This is in
response to Stephen Nowlin's question about lawyeresses, doctoresses,
etc. As to his question "What's an abbess?"--that's a joke, right? He
must own a dictionary, right? I know, this was just a plot to trick me
into my dictionary advocacy again because people get a cheap thrill out
of it--OK, you win.
     What does all this have to do with museums? I just wanted to state
that the number of curators and curatresses in my museum is roughly
equal. :-) (And you thought that was a shampoo for problem hair...)
--David Haberstich. (P.S.: Bubble, Hans? What bubble?)