"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"
Two weeks ago, France bit the bullet. The epithet mademoiselle has had her last outing, and is no more. Indeed, the word mademoiselle will disappear altogether from administrative documents in what appears to be the first step towards complete eradication of the term. French Feminists are surely jumping for joy, but what does this really represent for young ladies in France? Mademoiselle will be usurped by its slightly senior counterpart Madame. But, one cannot help but wonder if this is truly the lesser of two evils.
On a personal level, I feel offended if called Madame. I object to it for a variety of reasons, the first of which being my own vanity. Being called Madame seems to be something I should expect once I reach a certain maturity of age. But aged 23? Secondly, I have always been offended by the Madame or Mrs. which occasionally appear on my doorstep. My mind always forms the same outraged thought: how dare they presume that I am married? I consider that Mademoiselle, and indeed Miss are the more flattering alternatives in terms of age, and marital status, particularly for a younger generation of women.
However, I do wholeheartedly agree that the nominal demarcating of married and unmarried women is wrong. Wrong because the same system does not exist for men. My solution to the problem would be: coin a new universal term for women, or invent a word for unmarried men. The English language has Ms which I believe fulfils this purpose for women. Alternatively, Master could act as an epithet for unmarried males. On the other hand, perhaps we should all get PhDs or medical degrees instead and forget about all this nonsense.
Etymologically, the term Miss stems from Mistress and serves as a term of respect for young women, or girls. Bizarrely enough, the abbreviation Mrs also stems from Mistress. How can two abbreviations of the same word represent two separate marital conditions?
It may be too late for France to salvage Mademoiselle, but surely us Brits can find a more suitable alternative than Mrs -- a term emptied of any pejorative connotation. I vote Ms.
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