genders
TV star Michael Degen is for more sensitive use of language
The actor Michael Degen straightens his bow tie in the castle park during a set appointment for the comedy “My Mother’s Wedding”. Photo: picture alliance / Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
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The actor Michael Degen likes it when language sounds nice and is used consciously. That’s why it annoys him when he says shortened sentences on the street like “Hey Digga, are you going to Edeka?” hears.
TV star Michael Degen (89, “Donna Leon”) would generally like to use language more sensitively – and finds gender to be artificial and ugly.
«It would be helpful to think before you formulate something – and to be able to form sentences that consist of more than subject, predicate and object. When I hear on the street: “Hey Digga, are you going to Edeka?” It shakes me,” said Degen of the German Press Agency in Hamburg.
The actor, who is also successful as a writer (“Not all were murderers – A childhood in Berlin”), adds: “But if the media are gendered no matter what, then too. Language must and will evolve in daily use. It would only be nice if she wasn’t dented beyond recognition in the process.” Degen lives in Hamburg with his third wife, the journalist Susanne Sturm. There he celebrates his 90th birthday on Monday (January 31).