Friday, February 29, 2008

Mrs. or Ms.?

It's funny. Most of the time I don't consider myself a terribly traditional wife. I'm more of a mish-mash of traditional and modern, I think. I like to take care of my husband and cook food for him, even though he doesn't like a lot of what I cook, (but that's a whole other story!) At the same time, I'm not afraid to cuss him out or argue with him if I think I have a right to be cross. This doesn't happen but rarely, thankfully.

I was watching a program the other day called "Joni and Friends". Now this is on one of the myriad of religious channels available through our satellite dish, and I truly do not watch them with the exception of EWTN, which has a number of programs that I enjoy. But I do know who Joni Erickson Tada is, and I'm always interested when I see her name connected with something. This particular show was fairly boring, to be honest, as it concentrated on other people and not on her, but I noticed through the ending credits that she was listed as "Ms. Erickson Tada". It annoyed me to no end when I saw that! Plus it got me to wondering......

What is so shameful nowadays about the title of "Mrs"? I never used a title of either Miss or Ms. when I was still single, and as far as I can recall, I was typically referred to as Miss when a title was necessary. It never bothered me one way or the other. But since the day I was married, I've happily used the title "Mrs." I am both proud and grateful to have the privilege to use that title. I want others to know that I'm married! Being a Mrs. is as natural to me as wearing my wedding rings. I have even been known to refer to myself as Mrs. and my husband's first and last name.

I'll admit that part of it is a sense of superficial pride on my part. I'm one half of one of the more unusual sights in life - a homely woman married to an extremely attractive man. It's not that uncommon to see a beautiful woman married to less attractive guy, but I don't see the reverse situation too often.

But far beyond that is the sense of personal pride that I carry as a wife, as one half of a married couple. I'm not single and I don't want to have a single identity. If I did, I wouldn't have gotten married. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I like being a Mrs.

No "Ms." for me!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not married, but I have no problem with the idea of one day being a Mrs.

But I must admit I absolutely can't stand the convention of referring to a wife as Mrs Husband'sfirstname Surname. It just strikes me as the complete eclipse of the individual by the married identity. If I were married and someone was to address a letter to me in that format I would return it with the message that that person does not reside at the address. We have a Mr Firstname Lastname, and we have a Mrs Myname Lastname. No one else.

(But if it doesn't bother you then that is your business. Just my take on it.)

 
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