[Ads-l] "Mx."

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jul 3, 2019, at 10:56 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
> 
> It's been in the OED since December 2015 (about six months after the NY Times article). The first citation is from 1977. Pronounced /mɪks/.
> 
> The OED says: "Mx was originally offered as an alternative to Mr, Mrs, Miss, and Ms, as a means to avoid having to specify a person's gender, but has frequently been adopted as a title by those who prefer not to identify themselves as male or female (e.g. transgender or intersex people)."
> 
> Is the original sense, that of a person of unknown gender, still used? Or has the term become restricted to people of non-binary gender? Both are useful, but the original sense can be incredibly useful, especially in business correspondence where the gender of the person being addressed is often unknown.

My sense is that it’s in between.  A newspaper, or at least the NYT, will not refer to an individual whose gender they don’t know as “Mx.”, unlike the case of “Ms.”, which has been used for some time to refer to a female person unless it is known that they prefer a different form of address--Miss, Mrs., or Mx. as the case may be. (Similarly in business practice, although I agree that extended use of Mx. would be handy.) But the OED’s careful language, “as an alternative to Mr, Mrs, Miss, and Ms, as a means to avoid having to specify a person's gender” still applies, contrary to the OED’s implication, to individuals who may *not* be transgender or intersex but who do indeed "prefer not to identify themselves as male or female” for social or political reasons. In this respect it is like “they” as a pronoun of choice even for *non*-non-binary individuals.  That is, “Mx.” can function sort of like a “none of your business” pronoun, somewhat like the use of “partner” extended to one’s legal spouse of whatever sex, although that practice appears to be more prevalent in the U.K. than the U.S.   Those are my impressions, anyway.   

LH 

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Rowan McMullin
> Sent: Wednesday, July 3, 2019 9:45 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Mx."
> 
> "Mix"
> 
> On Wed, Jul 3, 2019, 9:43 AM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Mark Mandel <markamandel at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "Mx."
>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>> 
>> Which directly raises a question of mine: How is it pronounced? In
>> writing that question is circumvented, but this explicitly places it
>> in conversational speech.
>> 
>> Mark Mandel
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, Jul 3, 2019, 10:38 AM Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Urban Dictionary says:
>>> 
>>> "Mx. The title of a person who is neither female nor male (or not
>>> strictly either). Like Mr. and Ms. but for gender variants.
>>> 
>>>   'Mx. Walker is my teacher for science.  They're really cool!'"
>>> 
>>> G. Cohen
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
>>> James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 3, 2019 9:24 AM
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: "Mx."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> In an on-line solicitation to send an email to NJ Governor Murphy
>>> about ending solitary confinement, there was an entry for Salutation
>>> which offered the following options:
>>> 
>>> Mr.
>>> Mrs.
>>> Ms   (note, no period)
>>> Miss
>>> Dr.
>>> Mx.  (note the period)
>>> 
>>> "Mx." is a new one on me.  I guess it has something to do with
>>> sexual orientation.  Is it common/nonce/being widely advocated or what?
>>> 
>>> And if you have a doctorate, are you above showing your sexual
>> orientation?
>>> 
>>> - Jim Landau (who is fuddy-duddy enough to stick with "Mr.")
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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