"Leader DeLay"??? What's up with that?

[Lal Zimman]

Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> At 07:39 PM 5/15/2005, you wrote:
>>The idea of having a title for women that had no more reference to marital
>>status than "Mr" did for men has had a very hard time in this land of
>>women's lib.  People persist in thinking it's just a substitute for "Miss."
>>I'm all for the idea of Ms but have never actually liked the form. (I
>>usually chuck the return-address labels that arrive in the mail each week
>>that have "Ms" or "Mrs," & use only the ones with my name or initials.)
>>A. Murie
>>
> On the contrary, I think "Ms" has caught on remarkably well, and I don't
> think it's just a substitute for "Miss."

I agree, and I think good evidence is how my generation, which is
"post-women's lib", uses titles.

When I was in middle school (the mid-90s), I never heard anyone address
a teacher as Miss or Mrs., only Ms. (I only have evidence from my middle
school because I went to private elementary & high schools where we used
our teachers' first names.) The only exception to this would be if the
teacher's name began with a voiceless sibilant (& possibly other
voiceless environments) in which case the Ms. would sound like Miss, but
in my mind at least was definitely still a Ms. I've asked others my age
from the same area (Northern California) and they've all agreed with my
assessment. The general consensus seems to be that we would be
uncomfortable making a Miss/Mrs. distinction unless requested to by the
addressee (e.g. my girlfriend had one high school teacher who preferred
to be called Mrs. So-and-so.)


-Lal