The Women’s Corner: The double standards of pronouns

Since the beginning of our lives, we are accustomed to the pronouns of the adults in charge. Through school, we call our teachers by a pronoun followed by their last name. But recently, I’ve come across a double standard for this simple action. We call male adults “Mr.” but we call female adults by three different pronouns, and it doesn’t make any sense to me.

I never questioned it growing up, because it was just what you did. However, now that I’m older and I have more feministic genes in my brain, I’m kinda pissed about it.

A woman that is not married goes by “Miss”. For a woman who is married, we call them “Mrs.” But when either of those things are in place, we can also call them “Ms.” Now why in the world do females have three different pronouns, when males only have one?

Why do people need to know our relationship status? We shouldn’t be defined by our relationships with another person. We are not dependent on others to get the job done, so why should we be called by Mrs., Ms., or Miss?

Not only are we defined by our marital status, but we are judged on our age. Mrs. is based on marriage, but is also seen as mid-aged and older women. Miss is used for those who are younger. But Ms. is supposed to be used for both married and unmarried women, but we all know that most people use this term when speaking with older ladies.

Why is this a thing? Why are women put in a judgmental box and given a name of what to be defined by? It’s such a big, but sutble, double standard that needs to change.

But change is hard in a society where new ideas are shut down without a second thought. Women are still being treated unfairly with unequal pay, and everything else that is wrapped up into being a female. Do we really need to fight for something this little?

When asking a close male friend, he said it doesn’t matter. He’s never thought of it that way and it’s not that big of a deal, which it shouldn’t be, but it truly is. I have to go through my whole life being defined on whether I am single or married. Why? If a man isn’t, why should any woman be?

Women are facing so much in this day and age and this shouldn’t even be one of the things we have to fight for. It should just be common sense and gotten rid of. It will give us as women more confidence in our lives. We won’t be judged based on our marital status, nor our age. We can actually be our own person!

Let’s stand together and fight. We are independent women who don’t need any pronouns.

Tabitha Barr is a Nickerson freshman in Media Communications

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