Feminine terms such as "actress", "usherette" and "comedienne" are marked with respect to the masculine ("actor", "usher", "comedian") both formally (i.e. something is added to the masculine form) and in the sense that only the masculine form can be used generically to describe a mixed-gender group of people. This means that the "masculine" form can in fact serve as a gender-neutral term (a solution often favored by proponents of gender-neutral language, who thus tend to deprecate or restrict usage of the specifically feminine forms). Some such feminine forms, such as "poetess" and "authoress", are now rarely used. Others, such as "actress", remain common, although increasing numbers of women are calling themselves "actors" rather than "actresses", especially in the live theatre. The Screen Actors Guild annually gives out awards for "Best Male Actor" and "Best Female Actor".