Ms – a “monstrosity”

“Political correctness is now affecting our language – and not for the better, in my opinion,” writes a Craigie regular.

“Women are no longer actresses, headmistresses, usherettes, waitresses and clerkesses. They have been transformed into actors, head teachers, ushers, waiters and clerks,” he says.

“The going gets tougher with chairmen and spokesmen. Spokesmen have become spokespersons and chairmen have become chairpersons or even chairs.

“Titles have also been altered. We have this monstrosity ‘Ms’ instead of Miss or Mrs, the idea no doubt being that women should not be defined by their marital status any more than men are.

“I have not been involved much with the French, Germans and Spaniards since this fad for abolishing feminine titles took over, but I wonder what they do about Madame, Mademoiselle, Frau, Fraulein, Senora and Senorita?

“Life was much simpler when males were males and females were females and words describing their occupations or titles were allocated accordingly. Carried to an extreme, the present trend towards same-sex names could lead to more monstrosities of words such as personholes and personhandle. I’d like to personhandle the extremists who thought up the new unwritten rules on gender-neutral language.

“I wonder how long it will be before it will be a crime to talk about boys and girls, men and women! It’s all very complicated.”

Do you recognise any of these young Auchtermuchty footballers? Their photograph appears in an exhibition. Read more on the left.