LGBT News Oxford English Dictionary adopts gender neutral honorific (Mx)!

Omg!! I'm super happy now!!

 

Its good theres another option there for people who want it, but I'd question some of the comments on the page like:

I don't think "monsieur" is "blatantly sexist". Neither do I think we all need to be using these pronouns, or that there use will eliminate sexism. Maybe it might obfuscate gender slightly on paper (although not if combined with a masculine name like "John Eldridge"), but people are quick to impose gender on others anyway.

Having worked in a call centre I know these sort of things do tend to cause some confusion, and people using these terms need to be prepared for some slip-ups. The amount of times I've had women rage at me on the phone for reading a mistyped "Mrs" or "Miss" from the system "I THINK YOU'LL FIND IT IS MS" etc :lol:. And is it Mux or Mix? I'd hazard there'd be few panicked people on outbound dialers if that came up on their screen! I'm guessing most would presume a typo of Ms given the proximity to the S key and work around it.

 

...some people are crazy!

 

Yay!

I also was reading earlier that the UK has started giving Mx. as an option on most documents, I hope Canada starts doing that soon too!

And, now that it's in the dictionary, I can teach it to my (poor, confused) students!

 

I'm going to use it.

 

It hasn't.

I've never seen this before, and I know it isn't common amongst banks (I think it is only RBS who have this) - the other major banks don't.

 

Huzzah! I didn't even know anyone had even thought of gender neutral honorifics! I'll have to tell my friend about this, he'll flip!

 

Just to add to my prior comment, yeh, the article is off when it says this is "commonly used" - it is extremely rare and not something I've ever seen/heard about prior to this article.

Even the mention that RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland) use this seems to be wrong, I've just tested it by going through a few online applications for a number of their products, not one gives Mx as an option.