Hey, I just wondered something.

A man is called "Mr.", right? Mister. Mister John Smith. Alright then. I know your name now. Also, I know your gender. Great.

A woman is called either "Ms." or "Mrs.", right? Miss Jane Williams. I know your name now. Also, I know your gender. 

Great.

Oh, wait. It can also be "Mrs."? Mrs. Jane Williams. I know your name now. Also, I know your gender. Fabtastically fantabulous. But how is that any different from - 

oh. Right.

Do you seriously have to know whether I'm married or not? Is it that important?

Why can a man's relationship status be undefined in his name when he is addressed formally, yet a woman has to be either "Ms." or "Mrs."? It kinda ticks me off.

Lol .

Like, when I hear "Mister", I just think of a person and nothing else. When I hear "Miss" or "Mrs.", I think "available" or "taken". But maybe that's just me. It is sort of my fault if I think of it that way, isn't it? I guess.

But it still doesn't prove that dividing women and women ONLY into "married" or "unmarried" categories isn't kind of... sexist .

Like, it's no one's business whether a woman is married or not, right? If it is, then it should also apply to men. The "I have to know your relationship status" pre-name... name... thing. I don't know. 

This just popped into my head. Don't take it seriously; it is in the "Light hearted" subcategory but it just crossed my mind and kind of irritates me a bit... and stuff O_o.

NintendoFanKimmy, out!~

I'm of a different opinion. The two designations are helpful because they allow men to perceive whether or not they would cause trouble if they were to flirt with, try to date, or even try to marry this woman. In my opinion, it is sexist that men don't have similar designations as well. Why should men not be required to state whether or not they are married in their very title? It's not fair to women.

supernerd117 : Surprisingly - I I totally agree with you! It makes the choice to flirt or try do date a woman much easier, and that's cool, but it still bugs me because of the same reason it bugs you - women should also know whether they can flirt or try to date a man .

EDIT:

Also, the fact that only women's married statuses must be included in their titles kind of... just... I don't know how to say it. It kind of makes it seem like flirting with a woman is a PRIMARY thing a man has to know he is able to do when meeting her . Not her name. Yet it isn't as important for women to know whether the men they have their eyes on are "taken" or "available"? Eh... I find it kind of creepy XD.

Again, I totally agree with you.

But you can tell from a man's title:

-his gender

-his name

Whereas from a woman's title, you can tell:

-her gender

-her name

-can I marry her or not?

It just feels to me like the fact  that someone is a woman gives everyone else the right to know her married status because hitting on them is SUCH a common option when meeting them, whereas it isn't for men. Kinda weird .

XD. 

In my job we use "Sir" or "Ma'am," that way we aren't assuming either way.

Its just an old formality that is still being used...

From what I heard, "Ms." (pronounced mizz) means a divorced/widowed woman. I don't think that's really true, though .

Popeye116 : Nope. "Miss" or "Ms." is just used for a woman that isn't married. It's a shortened form of mistress.

It honestly just confuses me. I mean, Miss and Mrs just sound the same to me, and I understand the married aspect, it's just that I get very confused. That's why I tend to ignore whether it's Miss or Mrs most of the time. Just my take on it, other people might be bugged by it but I just ignore it.

I don't think it's that big of a deal. Every language has thousands of different quirks, many of them way weirder than this

Thebiguglyalien : I think this is just crazy. Nonsense talk is going on around here.

Let me try to explain!

I believe that the difference between "Miss" and "Mrs." came at the time where women didn't work and worked on their beauty and housework. I think that these terms were used so a man knew whether he could go ahead, try, date a girl, and most likely marry, or to stay away. So, this was like in the 1950s.

I feel that it is not offensive to women, there are things that can help women to see if a man is married. His wedding ring. Ladies, please. Don't start complaining.

And now, for my very first controversial rant:

I understand that this is the period when women want to act like men, and then men want to act like women, but this would've never happened 50 years ago, all the way back to 1965! I asked my sister, "They're doing all this 'Girl Power'-type stuff, right? Why can't it be 'Man Power'?" I didn't get a response. Now, this is a same question that I asked to both a boy and a girl at school. Guess which gender is saying which statement.

"If they did that, that wouldn't be fair."

"That would be much better than 'Girl Power'"!

So, the boy said the second one! Now, you girls haven't done your research. Now, this might not be marital status, but there could be a line between boyhood and manhood when we talk about dating and marriage. A boy's title is "Master". A man's title is "Mister". This was only used in England, but you'll see it in various places. Like I said, it wasn't the same. *sighs*

@ NintendoFanKimmy : Hey I can see your point and I agree with you. I think there should be two distinctions for each sex. It would make life much easier, so you ladies ain't craning your neck to see if that guy is wearing a ring or not. In this day in age them wearing a ring or not wearing one doesn't really mean anything because cheaters tend to take them off. So yeah I can see your point but what would the other to "Mr." be ? 

I'm pretty sure that some time in the 90's some women got together and decided that using "Mrs." could be used to describe anyone who is female and that is sort of a norm now. I thought everyone knew this, but I guess not.

NintendoFanKimmy :
supernerd11:

I have to completely disagree with both of you when it comes to whether or not a girl or woman wants someone, namely any specific guy, to flirt with her based on her title or status.  The place I work at is where a lot of single women to exercise without worrying about people flirting with them.  Being single does not automatically mean you want others to hit on you, flirt with you, or you may not be in the market.  Or they've had a boyfriend the past four years and they're happy.

On the flip side, when it comes to married women: "Just because there's a goalie in the net doesn't mean you can't score."  There are plenty, and I mean plenty of women who are married and flirt and tease with me because I'm young, in great shape, and I smile a lot.  They like me, they like the attention they may not be getting at home, and I'm confident if I propositioned a few I'd get some to answer yes.

The title means nothing.  It doesn't tell you about a personality, a character, their wants and desires, what they're looking for, or any more about them than you can see with a wedding ring anyway.  You learn to look for rings on fingers and see what that's about.  I'm married and I wear a ring on my finger.  That's enough to tell people my "Mr." means I'm married.

Is it sexist?  Yes because one gender is subject in my culture to having their marital status and the other isn't.

I treat all people individually and not based on their titles so it doesn't change anything for me.

A simple rule: call every female you meet Ms. If they want to be called something else, they will tell you.

French doesn't have that problem; "Madame" is used to designate every women - "Mademoiselle" only refers to girls really.

I moved from the north to the south(USA) a few years ago and I was surprised that all the women, regardless of age, were Miss + first name. So, I  was Miss Clare, my mom was Miss Dianne, etc. I liked it.

NintendoFanKimmy : I'm glad I'm not the only one. Ms. Mrs. Mz. Miss, it's insane. As a kid, my teacher taught the differences between them, and I raised my hand and asked what other types of Mr. there were.


She laughed.

I just did a little bit of browsing, and it looks like initially they both meant the same thing, they were simply an abbreviation of Mistress, the feminine of Mister. They didn't indicate marital status at first when they were used around 17th century, however people stopped using Ms. in favor Mrs., and Ms. didn't come back into use until the 20th century. I think its really just an old formality that people haven't bothered to change yet due to laziness. I think it also has to do with our not using it in a general sense, because both Mr. and Ms. are formal terms, which normally wouldn't be used in a generic social setting of today where we are much more lax. In that case it means people don't tend to notice it much for flirting and such, unless they had read their name written that way on a list or some other place, and it would normally only be written that way in a business, at least that's my experience. I do agree though, it is rather ill-considered to have an indication for marital status for women but not men. Though I'm curious exactly what that new term would be, and if Mr. would remain the indicator for marriage, or if the other would be. Definitely something to puzzle over.