Ms AMP?

This may seem ironic from someone whose pseudonym over the last few years has been 'Miss AMP', but let's just ignore that shall we? Back in the real world, I prefer to use 'Ms' on official forms and stuff, just because Miss seems gay and Mrs is ugly. And untrue. And... jeez, the whole advertising yr marital status thing seems kind of gauche, really. And men don't have to do it. So I go for 'Ms' on forms. In real life, Anne-Marie or AMP seem to suffice quite nicely. Nobody has reason to call me by my 'title' - I'm not a teacher, am rarely in formal situations, so what's the problem? But I was a little shocked yesterday when I signed up for Brand Republic - you know, "first for advertising, marketing, media and PR" (what can I say? I've been misguidedly trying to take my 'career' a bit serious for once) - and discovered that there was no 'Ms' option. I mean, there was Dr and Prof, but no 'Ms'. I was a bit shocked at this, and even went so far as to send them an email (whoo! direct action!) suggesting that this made their supposedly forward thinking edge pushing brand-building magazine look a bit - well - retro, and eventually, of course, I selected 'Miss'. But not without reluctance.

So yeah. What is the deal with 'Ms' these days. Apparently Lucy Mangan of the Guardian doesn't use it because, well, it makes her feel a bit old, and men don't like it, and neither do some women. Way to go, Mangan. Fight the power. But what about my contemporaries? I've realised that I actually have no idea which box they choose to tick. Let me know. Does the omission of a 'Ms' box on a form or website signup worry you? Or am I just being totally boringly rad-fem about the fact that I cannot see what relevance my marital status has to, well, absolutely fucking anything these days? I think we should be told.

Labels: feminism

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