-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
The way I've always seen it, this query serves 2 purposes;
1) to determine how mail, etc., should be addressed
2) to determine gender.
I've always had a big problem with this being used as gender
determination because of the option 'Dr.' It doesn't answer
the question, though it's usually assumed (in our sill largely
sexist society) that 'Dr.' is a male. The bigger problem I have
is that so many titles are still in use to indicate a woman's
marital status but not a man's. This is another form of
subliminal sexism that I brought up on my original post
re; demographics. It's a way of saying that a
woman's marital status is relevant information while a man's
isn't. It is one of thousands of tiny, subliminal piranha that
nibble away at true, social gender equality.
My first career was airline reservations. To be fair, I shouldn't
name the companies I worked for, but the first one rhymes with
you-nited and the other's initials are TWA. Both required
that I determine the following titles: Master/Miss for male/
female children, Mr. for adult males and for adult females
I was to determine their marital status and put Mrs. for married
and Ms. for single. Honestly, I'm not joking ... and we're not
talking 100 years ago, this was late 80's-90's. As the primary
purpose was to identify gender, I skipped the detective work
and put Mr. or Ms. unless the customer requested a specific
title (though no one ever requested 'Your Lordship.' I think
I'll try that for myself next time I fly). They're becoming more
lax about these guidelines, but to the best of my knowledge,
that's still what new agents are taught.
- - Empress Mary
- --
"I have a dream..."
- Happy Dr. King Day
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.1 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>
Comment: Thumb your nose at Echelon ... use PGP.
iQA/AwUBOINY9RCClC0vfawSEQKugwCdHi38cWwNJY0j1VKthWs/sPwL92EAoOVT
uLP4H73iJjKWs4e63swz7UEm
=85oC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
