The question is to read the above exchange and comment on the exchange based on what is in the book. I look at it all as two different issues but with one similarity, gender. The online exchange is about language and specific words used to describe people. The book ( at least the parts I found) refers more to how a person is looked at as a speaker with regards to whether they are male or female.
The online discussion is interesting. I have had a similar issue recently regarding whether a woman should be called "Miss" or "Ma'am". Apparently this is a big issue for many women. If you're young and unmarried, you're supposed to be called a "Miss". If you're older and married, you're supposed to be called "Ma'am". Or, something like that. I don't know really. I used to just call all unknown females "Ma'am" so I thought I was covered. But, that's not the case now. It kind of reminds me of the women's liberation movement back in the 70's (yeah, I'm the old one in the room) when they tried to get the "Ms" thing going (pronounced Mizzzzzzz). They wanted to use it as a generic female version of "Mr". You know, how you can call anyone that's a male over the age of 2 Mister and nobody cares. They wanted some kind of an equal salutation or greeting to the men and that's what they came up with. As confusing as this has become lately, I wish it had stuck. But, as we can see, it's nowhere to be found in our culture.
As for me? You can call me anything you want; Dude, guy, man, mister, boy, dick, dip shit, moron, dumb ass...I do not define myself by a word and thus I'm not easily offended. My self esteem is high, but I don't think it's any higher than the average person. I just have better things to get upset about. Like, when I can't find my keys. Now THAT'S worth being mad about.
F.D.
P.S. After writing this, I showed it to my 22 year old daughter and my wife. My daughter told me she and a bunch of her friends use "Ms." all the time. Looks like things have changed and I'm just out of touch.
I laughed out loud when I read what you don't mind being called. That was funny, thanks for sharing. Anyway, I have questioned the usage of "miss" and "Ma'am" as well. I'm a cashier so I use these terms a lot. Sometimes even ladies who are older and married oppose being called "Ma'am." They say "Ma'am" is for their mom; they're young at heart, I guess? This shows that certain words are different to everyone. As for how the speaker is perceived, every speaker wants to come across as respected, hence words or titles that support the speaker will help them feel more confident and welcomed by the audience. So, it's best to use nonsexist language/terms and titles when speaking to a group and when listening to a speech.
ReplyDeleteI also cracked up when I read your post, hilarious! I agree with you that this is a small thing to worry about and I personally don't even think that this is a sexist thing. It almost seems like if your worried about something as minor as this then you don't have much going on in your life. Miss or ma'm makes no difference to me whatsoever. I found that most of the commenters thought the same way and were also along the lines of it not being an issue.
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