Guambat Mrs the point

Guambat was reading the liberal, anti-Palin LA Times and suddenly realized they uniformly referred to her, not as Gov. Palin, but as Ms. Palin. Not Mrs. Palin, Ms. Palin. Seemed odd, Guambat thought, that a happily married woman of avowed conservative family value would be referred to as "Ms.". "Mrs." would be more appropriate, he thought. Even if you don't like her politics, respect is the stuff that keeps us from each others' throats.

Turns out Guambat, as usual, is slow on the uptake of this, and others have noticed and chimed in.

At least one feminist blog thought it unfair, to the extent that Hilary was referred to as Mrs. Clinton, but Sarah got the preferred Ms. designation. But, the blogger discovered the NYT style protocol defaults to the Ms. courtesy title unless and until they are advised that madam prefers Mrs. She seemed willing to live with that, even though, "I find it rather ironic that the avowed feminist here — Hillary Clinton — prefers the title of Mrs., while conservative Sarah Palin prefers a title made popular by the very feminists whose political gains she wants to overturn."

And, at least one conservative website is incensed and considers the use of Ms. Palin to be a purposeful slight. Guambat reckons they ought to call out and censor stories like this: What Should Ms. Palin Have Done?

Guambat's objection is having to type the "period" after any such courtesy title. Back in Australia, they don't use a "full stop" in the title; i.e., Mr Ms Mrs.

Ooops, that last one is the full stop for the sentence, not the title. Period.

Guambat is positive he's MISSing something here.

Now he understands when Mrs Guambat just looks at him pitifully and says, "it's complicated".