Diasfora
General Category => Chaos => Topic started by: HDAngel on April 02, 2009, 06:59:31 AM
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Why is it when formally addressing a male, we call him Mr. but when formally addressing a female we can call her Miss, Mrs. or Ms. which ever "She chooses" to be addressed as?
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I prefer to be called "Master".
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I prefer to be called "Master".
I prefer to be called Mistress.. That always settles the dilemma nice and firmly :)
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I just want to be God.
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http://www.diasfora.co.uk/index.php/topic,1477.msg232201.html#new (http://www.diasfora.co.uk/index.php/topic,1477.msg232201.html#new)
I'm bored, I guess. ;)
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I prefer to be called "Master".
:-X ;)
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If I remember right, "Mrs." is an abbreviation for Mistress. Some say it's more like "Mr.'s" but I'm pretty sure it's actually mistress, though I could be wrong ^^. Don't be afraid to double check me~
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^^ that does make sense.
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"Mrs." is the title for a married woman, "Miss" for an unmarried woman, "Ms." for a divorced woman (maybe a widow too but I think there's something else for that).
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Ms. (American) is an abbreviation for Miz, an invention by feminists in the 1970's who felt it was sexist to have only one title for men regardless of their marital status while women's formal titles announced theirs.
This was in reaction to the former state of affairs where titles such as Miss (equivalent to Fraulein/Mademoiselle, indicating a presumably virginal/unmarried woman) or Mrs (Mistress of a house, thereby married and sexually active) were regarded as titles that valued women solely on the basis of their reproductive/sexual functions and denigrated their place as fully participating members of society regardless of gender. It was also a way of broadcasting something about one's private life that men did not have to share. "Mr." doesn't tell you anything about whether a man is sexually active, married, or whatever. It simply conveys gender.
In Europe, at least in German speaking countries, there is no equivalent to Ms. Instead, women elected to eliminate the term Fraulein. All women, thenceforth, would be known simply as Frau (woman) whether married or not. I'm pretty sure it's the same in France and Spain.
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^That's what I was thinkin'
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Ms. (American) is an abbreviation for Miz, an invention by feminists in the 1970's who felt it was sexist to have only one title for men regardless of their marital status while women's formal titles announced theirs.
This was in reaction to the former state of affairs where titles such as Miss (equivalent to Fraulein/Mademoiselle, indicating a presumably virginal/unmarried woman) or Mrs (Mistress of a house, thereby married and sexually active) were regarded as titles that valued women solely on the basis of their reproductive/sexual functions and denigrated their place as fully participating members of society regardless of gender. It was also a way of broadcasting something about one's private life that men did not have to share. "Mr." doesn't tell you anything about whether a man is sexually active, married, or whatever. It simply conveys gender.
In Europe, at least in German speaking countries, there is no equivalent to Ms. Instead, women elected to eliminate the term Fraulein. All women, thenceforth, would be known simply as Frau (woman) whether married or not. I'm pretty sure it's the same in France and Spain.
The unmarried french women I know I call Mademoiselle, and the married I address as Madame. This is what they themselves have taught me and was part of their civilité. However, I believe recently there was a change in France that officially replaced Mademoiselle with Madame on forms etc, regardless of marital status, so it matched the male equivalent of Monsieur.
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In Europe, at least in German speaking countries, there is no equivalent to Ms. Instead, women elected to eliminate the term Fraulein. All women, thenceforth, would be known simply as Frau (woman) whether married or not. I'm pretty sure it's the same in France and Spain.
In Spain and Spanish speaking American countries there are Señora and Señorita and they're used regularly. Furthermore, it'd be awkward to address a 20-25 yrs old woman as "Señora".
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In Italy we had Signora and Signorina some years ago. Now as some other countries we use Signora for every woman, abbreviation Sig.ra
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It was quite common in the U.S. for people to address adult women, even elderly ones, as "girls" until recently. I remember people wearing teeshirts that said "Don't call me girl" in reaction to this juvenilization of women. The same verbal tactic was used against other populations, like African American men who were referred to as "boy" by whites as a means of subjugation.
What's funny about this is that now young women call themselves girls as if they are oblivious to this earlier struggle to get the term "woman" established when referring to adult females. It's clearly a generational thing.
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It was quite common in the U.S. for people to address adult women, even elderly ones, as "girls" until recently. I remember people wearing teeshirts that said "Don't call me girl" in reaction to this juvenilization of women. The same verbal tactic was used against other populations, like African American men who were referred to as "boy" by whites as a means of subjugation.
What's funny about this is that now young women call themselves girls as if they are oblivious to this earlier struggle to get the term "woman" established when referring to adult females. It's clearly a generational thing.
I call my male friends from London "my boys", which I think is akin to the American term "homeboys".
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Here in the survivalist compound I run, we go by Morlocks and Eloi.