I noticed the story in the
Guardian this week -
It was once the preferred form of address for the fashion designer Coco Chanel and a handful of Gallic screen stars. But, now considered an unnecessary and unjustified reference to women's marital status, the French government has decreed the honorific Mademoiselle should be phased out from official forms.
After a campaign by feminist groups, the French prime minister's office has issued a circular saying the Mademoiselle option should be removed from all administrative documents in the vast state bureaucracy...
- but found a
more detailed explanation in a prior report -
Here, referring to myself as madame immediately commands more respect, especially in my place of work and even more so when I introduce myself on the phone. People take me seriously, which isn't always the case when I use mademoiselle...
The honorific [mademoiselle], etymologically related to "damsel", certainly has a medieval ring to it. There is definitely something belittling about the term, as it originally implied the woman was a virgin and not yet the symbolic property of her husband, as madame implies...
- and also
this -
During the pre-revolution ancien régime its use was clearly prescribed: a laywoman or commoner was always addressed as "mademoiselle" to denote her lowly status. Madame was reserved for women of high birth. Marriage had nothing to do with it. Today, "mademoiselle" is most commonly used to denote an unmarried woman who is young or young-looking. After a certain age, wed or not, you become madame. But what is that age? How youthful or fresh-faced do you have to be? Is the butcher who says "mademoiselle", to a woman who is neither, being flattering or facetious? And while frankly I don't care if Catherine Deneuve, 67, and Jeanne Moreau, 83, like to be called "mademoiselle", as is their quirky right as "actrices", it does seem ridiculous.
I don't have any personal comment to add; perhaps"
mademoiselle titam" will offer one...
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