To think the BBC ought to get their act together

[Cronesquerness]

This morning on BBC Breakfast Newswatch, the presenter referred to princess Eugenie and her husband as "man and wife", not husband and wife but a man and his wife! I think the BBC should correct this to husband and wife and stop using archaic and sexist terms. Surely every woman entering into a marriage should be entering into an equal partnership, we no longer called married women for example, Mrs Dominic Wilberton, we use our actual names because we are not the possession or extension of, for example Mr Dominic Wilberton and in the same vein we should not be called the unnamed wife of a man. Not sure if I'm ranting too much but hopefully you get the idea.

It's a turn of phrase and really not up there with the real injustices going on all day every day.

You know what, I cant get worked up about it and Im damned sure Mrs Jack Brooksbank isn't getting her knickers in a bunched up twist either.

what is wrong with man and wife?

Yes everyday sexism, may well be a throw back from years ago however it’s a throw back to when women belonged to men and it’s not ok

Has there been a royal wedding?

Should be husband and wife as we are meant to be equal. No couple is ever referred to as woman and husband.

YANBU. I don't think it's a minor issue or unimportant either.
It wasn't just the BBC. The bishop presiding over the wedding ceremony pronounced them 'man and wife' and this is after Eugenie reportedly chose to not have the 'obey' part of the wedding vows.

Wife is just the Anglo Saxon word for woman.

OP I agree with you. For a princess maybe it should be wife and husband, or princess and her husband.

A lot of meanings of words have changed since Anglo Saxon times though.

YANBU OP, ‘man and wife’ is sexist - implying ownership of the wife by the man - and you can tell this as the phrase ‘woman and husband’ isn’t used/doesn’t ‘work’ socially (because patriarchy).
However, I do think that with marriage as a whole it is very difficult to get away from patriarchal origins completely, so it’s understandable that this pervasive everyday sexism slips through and that a lot of people don’t see it as problematic. It’s very very deeply ingrained and normalised.

As pp said, it just means man and woman. Midwife means "with woman". It is archaic, though.

I can't get worked up by it. It says what it means and we all know what it means. In true feminism surely women wouldn't get married, or wear a ring, wear a white dress?

The bbc is stuck in the past. That's why they didn't notice Jimmy Savile. And why they paid women so much less. I don't have a tv and only listen to radio 3. But I still get hounded because I don't pay a licence fee.

People saying it’s a minor thing compared to more major issues: all these small things create an environment that legitimises the ‘more serious’ incidents.

True. The BBC shouldn't use archaic terms. In small ways prejudice is normalised.