Men's relationship to women doesn't affect their social status.
Ha! Try being a man in his 30s who's never been in a relationship. The social status hits rock bottom.
this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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It may be archaic, but a young boy can be addressed as Master. When we were annual members of the San Diego Zoo, my son got mail from them addressed to Master [his name]. Also, Miss is definitely archaic. I haven't heard a grown woman referred to as Miss [her name] since the 1970s.
Yeah, that's why very few modern women go by anything other than Ms. I'm actually quite old fashioned preferring Mrs. and I only do to honor the long fight for my right to marry.
I always viewed this more like: Men only get one title because nobody gives a fuck about men. Single, married, whatever. It's irrelevant. "Here, have a nice, generic title that means literally nothing other than you are male. Now get back to work so you can create some value for ~~your rich land owner~~ society!"
Unmarried women, however, have inherent (societal) value beyond their ability to work. That's why they get extra titles. It's the same reason why most societies don't use women in war.
Once you have that Mrs in front of your name, you're considered to have "succeeded." According to the old traditions, anyway. A married woman was viewed as having been put to work (by society). That was her primary job, and people cared a lot about it!
Of course, women were still expected to also do actual work but the sexist nature of these traditions meant that it didn't count for much. Mostly because "muscle" (ability to perform manual labor for a full 12-or-more hour work day) was what ran the economy. Serfs in the fields!
Dr.
Cpt.
It used to be more important, now it is just done out of tradition
And barely, at that. These days you are lucky if people even know the difference between miss, Mrs, and Ms. Hell even the post image has it wrong. None of them have anything to do with being widowed, I assume they mean Ms (pronounced Mizz) but that’s just the most neutral option because Ms implies nothing is known about the age or marital status.
Ms is for anyone, not just widows.
But Mx is better than any gendered title anyway
Razer MX middle aged wo/man
I find *x so stupid
what about *nix?
What are you talking about? Everyone is already using *nix every day, they just don't realize it!
then what about NixOS? :D
Why do we even need titles? It's such an outdated hierarchical notion.
I have found it's getting easier and easier to not enter a title. Probably 80% of online forms I fill in these days have title as an optional field.
I've just filled one that has a non-optional. I've filled Mx just cause I hate it, regardless of my preferred pronouns.
Sir, this is a Wendy's!
Then we couldn't make that shitty joke.
In this case I believe the "sir" part of actually just a polite interjection to get attention. While I an unsure of another polite one, options include:
- Hey
- Oi
- Bitch
- Asshole
- Mate
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Stir well
- Bake 350 for 25 minutes
- Cut and serve
I substituted the asshole with strawberries, but somehow it's much too sweet. 1/5 stars
You forgot cunt.
Yeah, Ms. (pronounced miz) is supposed to be used when you don’t know if someone is single or married.
But I agree, the whole thing is outdated and icky and shouldn’t be a thing anymore
Mister is literally in my name. I prefer it.
Kachow!
Japanese nails it with their -san and -senpai and -sama. The only part they care about is whether someone is your senior or not, no matter their married status
That's not good either. Age based discrimination and subservience to elders needs to die off too.
Even the polite honorifics are garbage, "You can't say that, you must speak posh to your boss"
I don't see it that way at all though i guess it comes from my Vietnamese background where everyone gets an honorific, especially family. It makes it easier to know exactly who you're talking about if they have the same name.
Also, in Japanese, -chan and use of first name instead of last name gives very clear information that you've gone from acquaintance to friend.
Personally, i like 'em. Feels different being called Mrs.
Filial piety is authoritarian, hierarchical, and abusive.
How is any of what I said filial piety though? I get that unquestioned authority can lead to abuse, having experienced it myself and I don't practice it at all, but the naming conventions for the Vietnamese and Japanese languages don't relate to that.
If anything, it's a form of social structure - if you're an acquaintance, you're referred to in a certain way that is widely considered polite and friendly, if you're being aggressive to someone you are referred to in another way.
I don't know. I just like things orderly and easy to understand. Taking all of the above away just makes social interactions much more tedious.
Edit: just reading back on the chain of communication, I'd like to clarify that I agree with the age based discrimination should be changed but wholeheartedly disagree with removing the polite honorifics. Nothing wrong with being nice, unless the person deserves otherwise.