SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 04:35 PM 4/11/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Steve Kl. wrote:
>>On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>
>>>  In the UK, 'partner' is the term of choice regardless of sexual
>>>  orientation.  It's used without blinking all the time.
>>
>>I, like most of my queer, coupled friends, use partner (as in my response
>>to telemarketers "There is no Mrs. Dubuque; this is Peter's partner." Then
>>they stammer, except recently one person went "Is this a business?")
>>
>>Actually, in this day in age, I'm astounded by the number of telemarketers
>>who ask for Mrs. Dubuque. It seems so presumptuous on so many levels, not
>>just queer/straight ones. Haven't these people ever dealt with widowers,
>>for example? It seems like such an easy way to get off on the wrong foot.
>
>Not to mention women who are not and have not ever been Mrs.
>anything! (Not even when I was married)
>
>--
>==============================================================================
>Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
>Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
>New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963

When someone asks for "Mr. or Mrs. Flanigan," I answer, "There's no Mrs. F.
here and my son isn't here either."
But far more common is first-name address, which really bugs me.  I answer
irately, "How dare you call me Beverly?  You don't know me!"  Talk about
getting off on the wrong foot....


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm