03 September 2008

Ambassador? Really?

So I had to reserve a room at a hotel today for a work conference. I went online and and found a room and I proceeded to fill out the required info on the reservation form. They of course, asked for first name and last name, but there was also a box in front of those two for title. This is where I would usually have selected Ms. I'm a big believer in the usage of Ms. Men don't announce their marital status in their title, why should the ladies have to? I even looked Ms. up in Garner's, just out of curiosity, and it was listed under the section on sexism. He agrees with me. See:

Anyway, I would have chosen Ms., but weirdly that option was not available on the provided drop-down menu. Doesn't that seem odd in this day and age. I mean, everyone offers Ms. as an option, don't they?

I would chalk it up to the form trying to save space or limit options or whatever, but the thing is that the drop-down list included like every other possible title in the world.

Here is the list from which I could choose : Mr., Mrs., Miss, M/M, Dr., Prof., Judge, Amb., Sen., Rep., Col., Maj., Gen., Rev. or None.

I mean, come on...Ambassador, Senator, and Representative made the list? And it's so arbitrary. Colonial, Major, and General, but no love for the Sgt. or Lt.? And Reverend, but not Father or Rabbi or Imam? What about that M/M option, which I assume stands for "Mr. and/or Mrs."? That makes absolutely no sense, since there is only space for one person's name on the form. So weird. Anyway, I was forced to select none. Stupid conference hotel.

2 comments:

E. Peterman said...

Despite having been married for 11 years, I use Ms. all the time. Using "Mrs." makes me feel about 80 years old. Plus, there's an icky ownership subtext I don't like. Maybe I have issues, but I totally get where you're coming from.

Zil said...

Yeah, it seems a bit antiquated to think that you need to be able to identify a woman's marital status just by hearing her name