Example, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
I hate this for the obvious reasons but it’s especially annoying to me because my wife didn’t take my surname!
Example, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
I hate this for the obvious reasons but it’s especially annoying to me because my wife didn’t take my surname!
It is the most correct way. Even if she didn’t take your name, and even if your not married, she is your Mrs. Not sure why this would be infuriating, it’s the language.
Then it should be just as ok to use the woman’s name as the man’s, right?
monicle pops out
My wife isn’t my property
Well she did marry you so did something right
This is a question of culture, not language.
That’s a little sexist, don’t you think?
Absolutely not, it applies in either direction, universally. I am Mr (wife) (wife’s maiden name), this is how the language works. Why is this offensive to YOU?
That’s not how language works, that’s how culture works. Mrs and mr are referred to you, not relatively to your spouse. I am Mr John Smith, even if I’m married to Mrs Amy White. Amy is not Mrs Smith and John is not Mrs White. They are Mr Smith and Mrs White. In the usa for some reason it’s custom that the woman changes surname to that of his husband, in many other places it was like that in the past but ia not anymore
Per Debretts, it has been this way since at least the 1700s, not an “American” thing as you suggest. I’m starting to think this is just another social issue used to divide America, ie propaganda used to control people. And if it is purely preference in etiquette, what are you complaining about? The person sending the letter are allowed to exercise their etiquette preferences as well, right? Or do you also want to control people? Is this all just the fascists on the right vs the facisists on the left? This is how people like Trump rise to populisim, and how freedom and democracy die.