EU bans use of 'Miss' and 'Mrs'

I don't have a problem with Miss or Mrs. I don't particularly care for Mr. and Mrs. John Smith.

I have my own first name thank you.

reply to post by Keyhole


there was a lot more idiotical ideal which passed here in EU.
I won't be surprised at all.

Originally posted by dreams n chains
Most of the responses to this thread are a real eye opener for me... in a very disheartening way.

People actually do not even realize that women are automatically and legally branded by "Mrs., Ms., or Miss" and that, yes, it is very sexist and discriminatory. Men are not labled of their marital status... only women.

For those of you who speak for all women by claiming this is unwanted, insane, etc. Please stop speaking on behalf of all women.

This is long overdue and the U.S. needs to do it too... like yesterday.

I would go a step further and abolish all titles. What is the relevance in sharing a persons gender or marital status? What it amounts to, if I can put it bluntly, it is an abbreviation for the kind of sexual organs between a person's legs and the condition of those organs (virgin or not). Exactly why does society make it a requirement to volunteer such information?

What if we lived in a world where penis size had to be part of a person's title as part of a tradition held for thousands of years? "Mr. 5.5 John Doe." that would be completely ridiculous, but if you lived in such a world, your rationality would become clouded by tradition and perhaps your penis size would determine your pay scale, and everybody would not only consider it "normal" but violently oppose any attempt to change it.

I know that many people will argue in favor of "tradition" or "long held customs" because the current paradigm is so pervasive they cannot see beyond it. Just because a tradition is popular or old doesn't mean we don't have an opportunity to be rational for a moment and change things for the better.

-rrr

Most surprising is that this thread has reached six pages!.
I remember hearing on the radio soe years ago that even chairperson was deemed sexist by some as the last sylable is the word son, your male child. Chairperkin was prefered.
Feminism is now a movement without a cause. I address people is such formal terms out of politeness and respect and i never refer to a woman by her husband's name. I think an individual should be addressed however that person or perkin wishes to be.
But the EU isn't beyond daft regulations either, e.g. carrots had to be redefined as a fruit because the portuguese make a marmalade from carrots and you can't make marmalade from a vegetable!!!

reply to post by rickyrrr


now we will cancell the miss and mrs, than we have to get rid of all the words describing religion issues, sexual issues, race issues, and so... . I am sure our guys in EP are hard working on those changes already.

the funny thing is that the very same people are preparing for us the database which will cover the very whole information on you - including your medical data, religion issues, sexual orientation and so on.

i know guys on crack that makes more sense than these legislators.

every time we reach what seems like the apex of human stupidity someone manages to surpass it. with real life people like this one must wonder how shows like "the hills" and "big brother" can gather viewers.

Originally posted by czacza1


pleae read the whole article.

I live in EU and this is something I thought will not happen here. I know that in States there are some crazy laws regarding sexuality or race issues but I did not think it will come to Europe in the same absurde way.

I am not going even to make a comment on it. I think most of you can also find it as pretty insane.

greetings to all most respected girls (hope it is still not forbiden yet) on ATS

www.dailymail.co.uk (visit the link for the full news article)

You mean to tell me that the world is in economic collapse and their worried about this? Good old tax dollars hard at work. Got to love politics.

ok so now I would only be able to refer to them as woman, female, she, her, and hey you? That's the most ridiculous thing ever! Oh umm, female! Excuse me, female, you forgot your purse. Hold on woman, let me get that door for you. I now pronounce you Mr and She smith. I no longer care if the world ends. Next thing you, it will be mandatory for a male to be castrated so we can all be gender neutral in the crotch. I never once, stopped and thought about a woman's marriage status after calling her ms. or mrs. If a married woman asked me to call her ms. whateverthehell, i would do it and not think twice about the ring on her finger and i'm sure the same goes for almost anyone.

Originally posted by never2late
ok so now I would only be able to refer to them as woman, female, she, her, and hey you?

No, that's not what the article is saying.

The pamphlet that was released contained guidelines for what members of the European Parliament should say in official documents and while in session. It wasn't a law, it wasn't even discussed in the European Parliament.

Some office bureaucrat published a pamphlet about how not to cause offense in English, with emphasis on the question of how to address women. That's it.

And "Ms" is generally acceptable. "Mrs.", "Miss", and "Ms." are all shortened forms of "Mistress", which was the female equivalent of "Mister".

"Ms" does not make any assumptions about whether a woman is married or not; "Miss" assumes she is not and "Mrs." assumes she is.

Originally posted by czacza1

EU bans use of 'Miss' and 'Mrs'

www.dailymail.co.uk

Using 'Miss' and 'Mrs' has been banned by leaders of the European Union because they are not considered politically correct.

Brussels bureaucrats have decided the words are sexist and issued new guidelines in its bid to create 'gender-neutral' language.

The booklet warns European politicians they must avoid referring to a woman's marital status.

This also means Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita are banned.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ah, The Daily Mail again. The newspaper that has made turning minor comments about (not necessarily from) the EU into Big News an artform unto itself.

Aside from the fact that it's most likely not anything like the Daily Mail set it out to be (because it never is), I think it would be a good idea. I mean, how am I supposed to know whether a woman is unmarried, married, divorced or anything in between? Miss/Ms/Mrs might have had its place a few hundred years ago but not anymore.

[edit on 20/3/2009 by moniker]

Originally posted by DarrylGalasso
You mean to tell me that the world is in economic collapse and their worried about this? Good old tax dollars hard at work. Got to love politics.

No tax dollars at all at work in the EU.

Originally posted by czacza1

EU bans use of 'Miss' and 'Mrs'

www.dailymail.co.uk

Using 'Miss' and 'Mrs' has been banned by leaders of the European Union because they are not considered politically correct.

Brussels bureaucrats have decided the words are sexist and issued new guidelines in its bid to create 'gender-neutral' language.

The booklet warns European politicians they must avoid referring to a woman's marital status.

This also means Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita are banned.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What's that?????

I'm french, living in France, and i've nerver heard anything about that!!

[edit on 20-3-2009 by nefertari]

Originally posted by sadisticwoman
The people who made this up obviously don't have a firm grasp on feminism. It's not about the names, its how they're perceived.

But you can't court order "perception".
Just saying.

reply to post by nefertari


just a new funny way of wasting time (and money) found by our european parliament.
it looks that obviously there is too many of those clerks in Brussel and most of them is coming with a nonsense ideas like this one to keep "busy". and some of them are working there to create those absurds on purpose.

how to recognize one from another. stiupidity from evil....

reply to post by loam


The issue isn't gender, it's marital status. Of course the languages contain gender-specific structure. Even English has some; many European languages have gender built into the grammar. Even so, marital status isn't built into the language.

Why should a woman's marital status be stated? We don't distinguish between married and unmarried men; why do this with women? Why treat women differently, based on their marital status? There is no valid reason to do this.

reply to post by loam


Ermm.. this is NOT a gender thing - Miss and Mrs are still both female.

It's a marital state issue.

Put away your daft 'English speaking student conspiracy' theory.

This thing has souped me. Unable to wag my anger staff at the precise area, I am forced to scratch my paintwork in puzzlement. As far as I can make out, the Secretary General of the European Pipedream is a piece of cardboard - am I close? He/she is an anonymous entity who is perhaps several people who are afraid to go outdoors.

Personally I like to be introduced to women as Miss or Mrs because that saves me having to ask if they are married or not. But then how does a woman know if a man is married if everyone's a mister? My answer to that is, "I don't know and don't care because I'm a man and proper men don't care about things like that."

Is this really happening? Here in the US the whole 'politically correct' thing has been out of control for years, but I always thought the 'enlightened' peoples of the EU were above such inconsequential trivialities as this. When are the people of Earth going to realize that we don't have to worry about offending people of another race, because we are all the SAME race - HUMAN. This is just another sad comment on the fundamental insanity of the human condition.