Wimbledon has officially dropped the use of “Miss” and “Mrs” when announcing scores in women’s tennis matches. Here's why it's long overdue:
Share to linkedinhas officially dropped the use of “Miss” and “Mrs” when announcing scores in women’s tennis matches. Women will now be referred to only by their last names, as men have been for years. The All England Lawn Tennis Clubthey're no longer going to announce the sexual availability of the female players to the crowd.Historian Amy Louise Erickson studied the origins of the use of"Mrs" and"Miss.
Miss, by contrast, always designated someone who was unmarried. But until the eighteenth century it was only applied to girls, never to adult women. So when did Miss become used to identify unmarried adult women? 'The only published discussion of the eighteenth-century rise of Miss attributes the phenomenon to the industrial revolution and men’s need to know which women were sexually available when large numbers of them left home to work in factories," writes Erickson. She also found evidence that the prefix"Miss" was adopted by the upper classes"to create a more exclusive distinction of gentility with a view to the elite marriage market.
The French Open similarly stopped using the prefixes"madame" and"mademoiselle" to identify female players this year. The French government tried to be a bit ahead of the game on this issue. In 2012, French Prime Minister François Fillonthat women no longer must identify themselves as mademoiselle on official forms and registries. Clearly, there was no reason a woman's availability needed to be declared on tax forms or other official business.
“It's definitely not easy to alter or change any traditions here that have been present for many years. It's quite surprising that they've done that.” He's correct about that. Change is hard when an organization is steeped in tradition. Wimbledon should be commended for taking this necessary and long overdue step.
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Why Wimbledon Dropping 'Miss' And 'Mrs' Is Long OverdueWimbledon has dropped the titles of “Miss” and “Mrs” when announcing scores in women’s matches. They say they wanted to 'move with the times' and 'achieve consistency' between the sexes. How progressive—they're no longer going to announce the sexual availability of the female players to the crowd.
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