Doing without titles: who likes the idea?

[StuffingGoldBrass]

Inspired by another thread about being called Ms/Miss/Mrs - how many times is it really necessary to use titles like Mr/Ms to indicate whether we are male or female?
After all, how many interactions/jobs are there where it really does matter what gender a person is?

I like Flamingo's idea.

Yours

Fantastic Miasmas

societies can be matriarchal; nation states (passports, citizenship) are patriarchal

Poledra: Of course, that's another reason why it might be better to have a completely neutral polite honorific. Because, when you are dealing with someone on a non-intimate level (apart from a very few jobs such as wet nurse or sperm donor) why do you need to know what gender you are dealing with, at all? Particularly if you are never going to meet the person or even interact with the person on the phone and it's a matter of applying for a TV license online, or ordering a box of printer paper or whatever?

I would say that the Dutch are very patriarchal - from what I have seen when visiting and talking to a friend of mine who lives in the East. There is a lot of societal conforming, structure, neatness, everything and everybody in its place. Husband provides, wife is domestic. Very little flexibility in terms of work/child care/maternity leave. Very Stepfordy and IMO very patriarchal.

I would LOVE not to have titles. As SGB says above why do you need to know someone's gender - especially when dealing with them on an impersonal level and on forms.

If you don't know welsh, my first name appears quite gender neutral. The amount of times I've had an enthusiastic response to an enquiry when the person thought I was male, only to have the communication dry up once they realised I was female.
ONce, a man who ran quite a prominent political website replied immediately and quite enthusiastically to an e-mail I had sent to him, and enquired whether my first name was a title. When I set him straight I never heard from him again.
So snubbed on class/status and gender in one fell swoop.

well.. yes, I lived in Holland for a while. I found it to be a very twee and "women must be neat" type of place.

I'd be happy to not have titles. I use Ms as it's the most neutral, but would be fine with having a gender-neutral title or none at all.

I'm not offended if someone gets my gender wrong, has happened occasionally at work by email with people in the Asia offices who aren't so familiar with European names, also worked in quite a male-dominated field so it was a reasonable assumption to make. It's really unimportant to me.

In my last 3 or so jobs its all been firstname/surname, no titles, for colleagues or for clients. I think things are getting more casual generally, which is fine by me. Not fine by a lot of people of my parents generation though. So change takes time.

Couldn't care less about titles.

If people are flashy they can always put the letters after their name

I would say I associate titles with the old people. It is very infrequent that I would be called by any kind of title. I dont think I have ever been referred to as Mrs ever except by random callers trying to get me to sign up to change gas supplier.

I always book in for hair appointments, book taxis and restaurants with just my first name and dont bother telling anyone my surname.

The day I start being called Mrs or Ms is the day I become past it in my eyes