Gendered and racialized terms of address
April 26, 2024 8:10 AM Subscribe
Did a Hofstadter write an essay satirizing "Ms." versus "Mrs."?
I was having a discussion with a colleague recently about their dissatisfaction with the terms "Ms." and "Mrs.", for what I take to be the natural reasons (why should one have to know whether or not a woman is married in order to address her respectfully?). In this connection I mentioned an essay, which I vaguely remember to be by one of the Hofstadters—but I could be wrong—that pointed up the absurdity of this idea by imagining a society in which the title by which people were addressed depended on their race, rather than their station of marriage.
I am not certain about the author, and cannot remember the title or even the fictional titles that they proposed. Since the titles were intentionally set up to force us to confront the disrespect that they implied for Black people, I am afraid to do too much searching lest Google get the wrong idea about my interests. Do you know this essay?
I was having a discussion with a colleague recently about their dissatisfaction with the terms "Ms." and "Mrs.", for what I take to be the natural reasons (why should one have to know whether or not a woman is married in order to address her respectfully?). In this connection I mentioned an essay, which I vaguely remember to be by one of the Hofstadters—but I could be wrong—that pointed up the absurdity of this idea by imagining a society in which the title by which people were addressed depended on their race, rather than their station of marriage.
I am not certain about the author, and cannot remember the title or even the fictional titles that they proposed. Since the titles were intentionally set up to force us to confront the disrespect that they implied for Black people, I am afraid to do too much searching lest Google get the wrong idea about my interests. Do you know this essay?
offog has nailed it. You can read it online here among other places. One of my all-time favorite pieces of satire, for how deeply and seriously it takes its absurd premise.
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:24 AM on April 26 [5 favorites]
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:24 AM on April 26 [5 favorites]
Psst..."Ms." Is the one that doesn't reference marital status. The two that reveal marital status are Miss and Mrs. We now address women primarily as Ms. when using a title exactly for this reason.
But the essay sounds really interesting.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:48 AM on April 26 [20 favorites]
But the essay sounds really interesting.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:48 AM on April 26 [20 favorites]
Response by poster: If I only had a penguin..., right, thanks for the correction.
offog, beautiful; thanks! It turns out it's even been discussed right here on Metafilter.
posted by It is regrettable that at 10:02 AM on April 26
offog, beautiful; thanks! It turns out it's even been discussed right here on Metafilter.
posted by It is regrettable that at 10:02 AM on April 26
The paper itself is even older - it was published in the 1985 book Metamagical Themas and maybe a few years earlier in Hofstadter's Scientific American column.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:15 PM on April 26
posted by madcaptenor at 12:15 PM on April 26
A more recent FPP about this paper which I posted a few years ago has a much better discussion thread. Yikes, 2002 MetaFilter, you are a bit hard to take 22 years on!
posted by MiraK at 7:03 AM on April 29
posted by MiraK at 7:03 AM on April 29
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posted by offog at 8:19 AM on April 26 [10 favorites]