Miss, Mrs, Ms or Mx?

[Cherchezlaspice]

Which are you? I’m a Ms, and have been since I was about 8 years old. I didn’t change my title (or my name) when I got married and this caused some consternation amongst some of the older members of my family.

This made me realise that most women I know (married or unmarried) use Ms. I don’t think I’ve come across anyone under the age of about 50 who uses ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’. And I’ve never encountered a ‘Mx’. I do have a fairly specific demographic bubble, though.

So, I’m curious, which are you/do you use?

Phone posted too soon. Officially I'm Mrs but I have both Ms and Miss on bills.

Mrs. Don't know anyone who uses Ms unless divorced.

I’m Ms mysurname, very happily married to Mr hissurname. I’ve used Ms since around the time I graduated and started working. I saw someone mention it not being a thing in Scotland - I’m Scottish and lived in Scotland when I started using Ms!

I've been Ms since birth (single, married, divorced, single).

I haven't read the thread but I have noticed it's often connected with if you have a professional job or went to Uni.

Those women I know who have done/got the above mostly go for the old fashioned Miss/Mrs.

I am married
I use ms

I find mrs so incredibly cringeworthy and outdated

exactly .

Ms single, Ms married, Ms divorced and so shall it ever be, even if I remarry.

Ms but it’s old fashioned, so I am told..

One of the benefits of getting my PhD was being able to use a title that defined me by educational status rather than gender/marital status!

But I actually use a mix of Dr/Ms/Miss - I don't feel any great affiliation to any of them. Probably because they are only ever written down, I never use them to describe myself when speaking.

I'm Ms and have been since my early 20s. I won't ever change that.

All my friends who are married are Mrs (or Dr/Prof). So it's been interesting to read on this thread about married people using Ms. Maybe there are regional differences as PPs have suggested.

I was miss when single, and now Mrs as am married. I'm 30.

To be honest it doesn't really bother me, the only time I ever use it is when filling out a form. Which I actually don't do. People use my first name, I don't think anyone has ever called me Mrs Hissurname.

Oh? By whom? And what’s modern, in their opinion?

@WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps

I have no preference myself but I don’t know how you’ve never heard Ms if you have worked in the professions / professional workplaces.

It’s used by lots of professional MC women, but is almost entirely unused by women outside that group.

am astonished by this. not the part about mx, as that is quite recent, and not widely used yet.
but you've never met a woman who uses ms, nor one who keeps her own name ?? really?
feel like i've slipped into 1922. i am much older than you, and always used ms when pushed to use a title. prefer not to.
and am surprised when women give up their identity/name, as if they are less important than their husbands.
i see it v much as a minority rather strange choice since the mid 1970s.

Mrs. I'm 60.
My daughter (17) would prefer nothing in front of her name.

Miss.
Always have been. Probably always will be.

I'm married, mid 30s, am Ms maiden-name. I don't know anyone in my circles who kept their maiden-name on marriage and they are all Mrs too. If there is an option to not select a title on a form, that's what I go for. Ms was explained to me by my parents as being the title for a spinster... obviously that didn't influence my decision and not sure if a spinster is 'taboo' these days either

your parents spoke to you of a category of contemporary women called spinsters ?

are you aged over 90 ?

Miss and Mrs are both old fashioned imo, not sure what Mx means. As men only have one option, I think women should too and I think Ms is the most modern. Really can’t understand women still calling themselves Mrs when they are divorced.

You 'even' pronounce it Mix

I don't have blue hair but I am on Twitter

I'm mid-50s and have been using Ms since I was about 18. I'm married but kept my surname.

I am a (PhD) Dr, so I generally put that on forms. This can trip you up though - I once had car insurance using Dr, with added Green Flag breakdown cover. When I got the Green Flag app it wouldn't register me as the only titles on the app were Mr, Mrs, Ms and Miss so I picked Ms. This didn't match to my insurance details and I had to change the details on the car insurance to enable the app. Ridiculous.

I also once had a stupid bank clerk refuse to pay in a cheque for me because the cheque wasn't made out to Dr Dues Dirt, (like my bank account) just Dues Dirt. It didn't have a title on it at all, like many cheques, but she wouldn't budge.

many forms force the use of a title, else you cannot proceed to apply for something, or register, or even buy something.
so mx is an option for those who do not wish gender to be specified.
it is also intended as a safety feature for women living alone, esp in flats where all the mail is thrown on the hall floor.
of course that will only work when lots of men too opt for mx.

Mx is a gender neutral honorific. It basically means ‘my gender is none of your business’. I don’t use it, but I can see the attraction. In 50 years, I suspect we’ll probably be on our way to getting rid of honorifics entirely, with Mx being the default.