Found something on Feministing.com that sums up my attitude perfectly: "“feminine” word endings suffixes like -ess, -ette, and -trix (1) specify a person’s sex when gender is irrelevant; (2) carry a demeaning sense of littleness or triviality (Rush Limbaugh derides women who succeed in traditionally male-dominated professions as “professorettes” and “lawyerettes”); (3) perpetuate the notion that the male is the norm and the female is a subset, a deviation, a secondary classification. A poet is defined as “one who writes poetry” while a poetess is defined as “a female poet”; men are thus “the real thing” and women are sort of like them. The recommended procedure is to use the base word for both sexes (thus, “waiter” instead of “waitress,” “executor” instead of “executrix”)."
Found something on Feministing.com that sums up my attitude perfectly:
"“feminine” word endings suffixes like -ess, -ette, and
-trix (1) specify a person’s sex when gender is irrelevant;
(2) carry a demeaning sense of littleness or triviality (Rush
Limbaugh derides women who succeed in traditionally
male-dominated professions as “professorettes” and
“lawyerettes”); (3) perpetuate the notion that the male
is the norm and the female is a subset, a deviation, a
secondary classification. A poet is defined as “one who
writes poetry” while a poetess is defined as “a female
poet”; men are thus “the real thing” and women are
sort of like them. The recommended procedure is to use
the base word for both sexes (thus, “waiter” instead of
“waitress,” “executor” instead of “executrix”)."