To think it’s about time all women were Ms or Mrs following this plane error

[AtlasPine]

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/09/tui-plane-serious-incident-every-miss-on-board-child-weight-birmingham-majorca

The confusion caused here could have had dire consequences.

Isn’t it about time we dropped the title ‘Miss’ to differentiate between adult women and girls?

Investigators described the glitch as “a simple flaw” in an IT system. It was programmed in an unnamed foreign country where the title “Miss” is used for a child and “Ms” for an adult female.

Simple. If you outsource your system design to an "unnamed foreign country" to save initial costs - bear in mind it'll probably cost you in the future.

My MIL got rid of her title when she divorced, so not Mrs, Ms or Miss. Just first name and surname. It is a nightmare everytime she tries to fill in a form, as there is no option for no title.

@Lazierdays

I wish we could just have one title for women and one for men. I hate how women are always defined in relation to their Dad (Miss Smith) their husband (Mrs Brown) or their divorce (Ms Brown or Ms Smith). Seems archaic when the men are just Mr Jones their whole life.

Ms does not define you as divorced. There is no compulsion to use Ms as a divorcée, nor to use Mrs as a married woman. Equally, you can use either any time you want. I've been Ms since I was 16 and I've never been married.

@Benfoldslanded

My MIL got rid of her title when she divorced, so not Mrs, Ms or Miss. Just first name and surname. It is a nightmare everytime she tries to fill in a form, as there is no option for no title.

I'd love to go by just first name last name and live without a title completely. They serve no purpose as far as I can see but, as you say, you are forced to use one with online forms.

other European languages like French, German, Spanish, etc., where the traditional married title (madam, Frau, etc) has become the title for adult women

the word Frau is primarily the word for woman though - not the traditional married title. (not sure about French & Spanish but i expect the same).

It has been this way here for years and frankly it is nobody's business but mine if i'm married or not unless i want to share that. I order stamps from the Royal Mail and i love that i can use Mx. They have no idea what i am. Man, woman, alien... I pick that one whenever i can.

For airlines, thinking back to the days of boarding cards I'm pretty sure mine have only ever shown F and the DCs back in the day had CHD. So i think it's just a local cultural thing. But if this is the 3rd time they need to get their backsides into gear.

Assigning a weight of 69 kilos to an adult is a laugh. When were these rules made? 1973.

I'm entitled to use doctor if I wish.

Are you actually a doctor @DelBocaVista?

@DrDreReturns

Just get rid of titles. What purpose do they serve?

Totally agree. Utterly pointless.

Does anyone else chose an unusual title if given a choice on a drop down list? My favourite is Sultana.

(I don't do it on official stuff. Just postage addresses etc.)

No I like being Miss not Ms or Mrs. Get rid of one of those.

@ErniesGhostlyGoldTops

Assigning a weight of 69 kilos to an adult is a laugh. When were these rules made? 1973.

Exactly what I was thinking, I hardly know any adult who weighs that!

I'm way over 69kg!
What a dumb system- it should have the passengers DOB, so should be able to allocate a ratio of under:over a certain age rather than go by titles.

I'm all for a standard, single title for women, though. Lets get rid of Mrs and Miss. I don't really like Ms, though, but better that than those tied to marital status.

YANBU
But I have to admit I bloody Ms....

*hate!

To me "Ms" always seems to indicate the person using it is insecure, or at least they they believe there is something inferior with one or other of the traditional titles.

Can you explain why you think it’s insecure?

I was Ms when unmarried and now Ms when married, simply because I don’t think any particular purpose is served by the delivery company and the gas people knowing whether I’m married or not, when they don’t seem to need to know that about their male customers.

@Lazierdays

I wish we could just have one title for women and one for men. I hate how women are always defined in relation to their Dad (Miss Smith) their husband (Mrs Brown) or their divorce (Ms Brown or Ms Smith). Seems archaic when the men are just Mr Jones their whole life.

Ms is NOT indicative of divorce!

@RampantIvy

Well... you have a passenger list of everyone on board and it is the cabin crews duty to count and match to the list, sometimes numbers go awry and the just get crossed out... therefore if the aircraft (god forbid) crashed they wouldnt have the true figures anyway! (not on all flights i hasten to add!) its just the slots are so bloody tight they need to get a quick get away otherwise the airlines are charged!

When an aircraft goes 'tech' it basically means its fooked! however nothing an aircraft engineer cant fix with gaffa tape! Ive once flown with no map working in the cock pit and the pilot doing it all manually (including working out what fuel is needed per passenger!)

Pilots are under pressure so much to get off the ground (not all but most) treat the ground staff like they are stupid and not worthy... ive been onboard when we have had to do something called a 'hold' in the air until a runway becomes free to land and it was the equivalent of the red light coming on on your car to tell you the fuel is low....

also over shot the run way (basically come off the end of it!) cus the pilot came in to land too quickly... luckily we landed in field so wasnt too bad but a very red faced captain when the crew clicked what had happened!

Isn’t it about time we dropped the title ‘Miss’ to differentiate between adult women and girls?

At no point has 'miss' been used to differentiate between adults and girls. It's used to differentiate between married and unmarried females (whether adult or child).

In my view, all women should be Ms. It's no-one's business whether we are married or not. Mrs/Miss are totally unnecessary.

The only way to be totally accurate is to weigh people at check in, the way they do luggage. The tech to do this has been around for decades, you just need a pressure pad at check in.

It's so simple to do for most people, if you are a wheelchair user then you can be weighed with the chair.

There doesn't need to be any embarrassment as the numbers can be fed directly into the system.

Ms is NOT indicative of divorce!

Yes! I can't believe people still believe this crap about Ms.

I'm a Ms, very happily married, never divorced.

The average weight of a woman in England is 70 kg today so they are presumably referring to the weight they calculate for adult women, not men.

@ErniesGhostlyGoldTops

Assigning a weight of 69 kilos to an adult is a laugh. When were these rules made? 1973.

69 kilos is a normal healthy weight for my height (5'10"), and I'm tall for a woman. So that weight would be at the upper end of healthy or overweight for the average woman.

Agree that 69kg is light for the average man.

Miss is used like Mr. for surgeons too.

It would be so much better if people were required to state their weight when booking. No ambiguity then.

I doubt the miss / mrs classification did anything there. It sounds like there must have been a series of cock ups.

69 kilos is a normal healthy weight for my height (5'10"), and I'm tall for a woman.

I think the point is not whether 69kg is a healthy weight for an average women but rather that many (most?) people aren't a healthy weight. No point using the healthy average if the majority of your passengers are overweight