Brussels + PC brigade = Daily Mail OUTRAGE!

[Deckard]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7952261.stm

In recent days the European Parliament has again caused "outrage" in the British press after publishing a pamphlet asking staff to refrain from using the titles Miss or Mrs. "Ludicrous", one Tory MEP told the Daily Mail. "Political correctness gone mad", he continued. Another, in the Daily Telegraph, branded it a "waste of taxpayers' money".

This is so full of all the requisite ingredients and cliches, I had to first check it wasn't a parody.

I mean I have to ask, what sort of spiteful, backward nation is so stuck in their ways and consumed by selfishness that they aren't willing to make even the tiniest concession in the way they refer to a section of society for the subtle but general/long-term benefit it may have, instead opting to turn an issue of basic courtesy into an issue of political correctness?

Oh that's right - my one. .....

It is more than 30 years since Ms began to gain ground among a US feminist movement keen to find a title which did not denote a woman's marital status. Decades later - while being a Ms might be seen in Brussels as simple as being, well, a Mr - many elsewhere are less keen to catch on.

Being a Ms is, frankly, unheard-of in some quarters.

"I don't think it's very helpful," said Charles Kidd, editor of Debretts Peerage and Baronetage - the guide to aristocracy. "I was brought up to address a married woman as Mrs John Smith, for example."

Oh you were brought up to do that were you? Well that's the end of that argument then. Sorted. Thanks for resolving it.

Just pathetic.

Look I know "Mrs/Miss" aren't comparable to terms of actual intended abuse, but that's not the point. What re(eeeeeeeee)ally winds me up is this same old complete LACK of generosity of spirit displayed by those on the right who stubbornly refuse to see any positive attempt to challenge the status quo or hold it up to a mirror as "political correctness gone mad".

They could choose to view this as a positive move, even if they believe it to be just a gesture. They could choose to recognise it as an issue of courtesy, of basic human consideration, of acknowledging the inherent backwardsness of only focusing on the marital status of women and not men.

Or... they could choose to ignore all that and just kick and scream about how they're having to change their ways (never mind that often they're not even being told, they're just being asked) and reinforcing how, again, they're the real victims in all this - of the great "PC brigade".

Invariably they choose the selfish, ungenerous, latter.

I too was brought up to write Miss and Mrs. I then reached an age where I appreciated the benefits of using Ms - not just the sense of encouraging an equal footing, but the obvious logistical benefits too.

The change was hardly a big deal.

And these same quarters - the Tories, the Mail, my own family (I'm ashamed to say) - will also use the same arguments to whinge about how unfair it is that they "can't even buy a gollywog in the shops these days" or "why CAN'T we call them Pakis and chinkies? We don't mean anything by it..." and I have to ask, are these people being deliberately wilfully ignorant?

Had I not batted for this side, I know my family would be making the same case about "queers" (in the pre-reclaimed, non-ironic sense of the word).

But with Ms, I'm just curious: is there this same resistance to adopting the term in the States, Canada, NZ, etc as there is over here? Or is it just us?

As I say, the sky's not going to fall in if we use Miss or Mrs, no-one's claiming that. But the point is, it's such a small thing to ask - isn't it?