To not know what I want my title to be?

[KeithBurtons]

Divorced 6 years, kept surname but don't really want to be known as Mrs any more. I'd like to put some distance between my marriage and who I am now but my options are limited:

Mrs- presumption that I am married or widowed
Miss- presumption that I've never been married
Ms- presumption that I'm divorced (I know that this theoretically is the option that doesn't tell the reader anything about marital status but a straw poll of 15 friends tells me that nobody knows a woman who has never been married that uses Ms, all the Ms they know are divorced)

Mx- suggests nothing about marital status but presumption that I am transgender.

I don't want to be Mrs Burtons any more but none of the other options are any better really- I'm sort of erring towards Miss but why should my title give any indication of my marital status? It really feels completely irrelevant and it's pissing me right off. On the other hand, if it is irrelevant why do I want to get away from being Mrs so much??

YABU- you're overthinking this
YANBU- I can see why you're annoyed

I am a Ms and have been Ms while single and married. Never been divorced (yet!!)

Personally I think the “divorced” presumption around Ms has gone, if it ever existed.

To me Miss means unmarried and Mrs means married whereas Ms just means none of your business.

(IMO the sooner we all ditch titles the better but that’s a different debate!)

Interesting. I was always known as ‘Ms’ from birth (thanks to my mother). When I moved to Germany people called me Mrs (same surname). I married but didn’t change my name. Moving back to the UK I stayed as Mrs Birthsurname. Apparently that’s not allowed. I say tough shit.

I think we should go the German/Dutch/French way of calling all adult women Mrs, regardless of marital status.

I think we should drop titles altogether, they’re not really needed anymore!

I'm divorced and use Ms. I also don't care if anyone thinks I'm divorced.

you are so over thinking this OP. No one is trying to analyse your marital status. They really don’t give a shit.

I leave off any title where I can, or online play mouse wheel roulette as I am a n agreement titles should be abolished

I've started switching to Ms, being known as MARRIED WOMAN PROPERTY OF MAN started to really piss me off, especially as I work in a very male industry and it doesn't feel like anyone's business.

The only option appears to be to do a phd in afraid

I don't use a title, unless I really can't avoid it when I use the Ms option, because I see that as a it's I don't belong to either my father (miss) or my husband (mrs). I am married btw.

I've actually found Ms being used increasingly by single women. I use it because I hate Miss, I feel it makes me sound like a sad old spinster whereas I'm happily single.

I was Ms my whole life, until I became Dr. Never been divorced
Imagine caring that someone might think you were divorced.

I’ve used Ms all my adult life - while single and married. I don’t associate it with divorced women, just with women who see no need for their title to reveal/reflect their marital status.

Always been a Ms. No-one's business if I'm married or not (I am)

I'm more concerned that the titles available to me have loaded meanings and I don't see why any of them are relevant in the slightest. I agree with @minipie, titles should be abolished. Well any of the ones starting with M anyway.

I use Ms and I'm not divorced (or married). Your friends are weird.

I’ve voted YABU for same reasons mentioned above. I’ve been Ms for a long time, before marriage and now I’m married. In teaching, it’s often automatically ‘ms’ although kids will call you miss all day long anyway!

I am Ms and have been Ms since I was too young to get married, let alone divorced.

Ms is the perfect solution for women who don’t want to be labelled by their marital status. Frustrating that this myth that it means ‘divorced’ persists.

My friend started using Ms at university and has stayed as Ms Maiden Name as a married woman because in her profession that is how she is known and she didn’t want to change everything also. I think the days of thinking that only divorcees use Ms are gone.

It would be entirely legal for you to use Mr, if you wanted to...

Go with Ms or Mx. Don’t worry no one will think you’re transgender, we can alway tell!

There is no meaning at all in using Ms, other than "I don't think my marital status is any of your business".

I mean, perhaps it might carry a faint undertone of feminism, but I'm OK with that personally. Your friends are... unusual.

Buy a title so you can be addressed as Lady Burtons.

Call yourself Miz Burton, spelled and pronounced like that, and never explain it.