Sorry, can't see past the sexism in the beetle bailey cartoon to see the funny.

Good point, Steph. BB is pretty darn sexist, and they don't seem to skip a beat on integrating sexism into that strip.

How funny, Steph. You beat me to the punch. That was my first thought too, "Wow. Someone still has a problem with Ms.? Jesus."

Just.Not.Funny.

I remember years ago trying hard to explain to my mother why I used "Ms." - she just didn't get that, like "Mr." - it's a signifier that doesn't note marital status, because people perceive unmarried women to be immature - as though a woman's right of passage into adulthood is getting married.

Of course, I also get peeved when I visit a public restroom and the signs on the door are "ladies" and "men." If I have to act like a lady (snort!) then males should be required to act like "gentlemen."

In French, Madame, the equivalent of Mrs., is pretty much just used based on age - like if a woman looks over 16, then she's Madame.

Same in Spanish with "Senora" and "Senorita". I remember asking my mom what someone calls an older unmarried woman, and she said "crazy", referring specifically to one of her aunts that never married and went crazy, which my mother believes happened because of constant cultural/familial pressure to get married.

I don't know how true that is, but that's my mom!

If a woman prefers to be referred to as Miss or Mrs., then I'll do that, but it's great to have a fallback, you know, when you don't know and it doesn't matter. At least the practice of taking an entire man's name, like "Mrs. John Smith", has pretty much faded away.

It's funny, also, that all three started as abbreviations for "mistress". Strange that they all have different connotations now.