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I like this blog: Stuck in 1971. It emails websites whose forms don't include Ms and ask them to rectify it. Small things.
It reminded me that if anything I find forms that just have "Mr, Mrs, Ms" just as annoying as those that have "Mr, Mrs, Miss". Ms is NOT just a replacement for Miss, for women who are trying to hide the fact that they're not married until the brilliant day they get a ring on that finger!!! My friend got married and went from Ms to Mrs, and it really pissed me off. Blah blah people make the choices that are right for them, but 1) I don't think feminism is entirely about individual choices, and 2) it's a choice that undermines the whole point of Ms in the first place.
I wonder about, should I actually get to the point when I'm entitled to use Dr, what title I will use outside an academic environment. I'll be delighted to be Dr, but actually Ms is really important to me. Though I like the non-gender-specific aspect of Dr (I would be very very happy for a universal title along the lines of Comrade, though perhaps something less political might be more enthusiastically received), while the general mode of address does divide between male and female, it seems important to have something for women that isn't additionally divided into MARRIED HURRAH and waiting to get married/sadly overlooked.
I am in the fortunate position, thanks to the work of brilliant women, that no-one thinks I shouldn't be Dr because I'm female. (There are still some grumbles about non-medical Drs using their EARNED title, and I fully expect that people will find the thing I will have a doctorate in ridiculous, but it's not about me specifically being female.) But using Ms is still a cause for comment, mostly ridicule, and it seems important to keep trying to resist that.
Of course, the whole thing becomes immaterial if I don't actually finish, so I should head off and do some work. Sorry about the scrappiness of the post.
It reminded me that if anything I find forms that just have "Mr, Mrs, Ms" just as annoying as those that have "Mr, Mrs, Miss". Ms is NOT just a replacement for Miss, for women who are trying to hide the fact that they're not married until the brilliant day they get a ring on that finger!!! My friend got married and went from Ms to Mrs, and it really pissed me off. Blah blah people make the choices that are right for them, but 1) I don't think feminism is entirely about individual choices, and 2) it's a choice that undermines the whole point of Ms in the first place.
I wonder about, should I actually get to the point when I'm entitled to use Dr, what title I will use outside an academic environment. I'll be delighted to be Dr, but actually Ms is really important to me. Though I like the non-gender-specific aspect of Dr (I would be very very happy for a universal title along the lines of Comrade, though perhaps something less political might be more enthusiastically received), while the general mode of address does divide between male and female, it seems important to have something for women that isn't additionally divided into MARRIED HURRAH and waiting to get married/sadly overlooked.
I am in the fortunate position, thanks to the work of brilliant women, that no-one thinks I shouldn't be Dr because I'm female. (There are still some grumbles about non-medical Drs using their EARNED title, and I fully expect that people will find the thing I will have a doctorate in ridiculous, but it's not about me specifically being female.) But using Ms is still a cause for comment, mostly ridicule, and it seems important to keep trying to resist that.
Of course, the whole thing becomes immaterial if I don't actually finish, so I should head off and do some work. Sorry about the scrappiness of the post.
