A teacher is a teacher, whether male or female, a novelist is a novelist, but a ballerina is distinguishable from a male dancer. And there is a tendency to call a person on the stage an actor not an actress, even if she is female; this is supposed to stop her being pushed into a lower category, to establish her equal excellence – but some of us would say it was an insult to Mrs Siddons and Greta Garbo, with its implication of male superiority.

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