These comments really are fascinating and it seems especially people whose first language isn't English aren't sure about this, which is fair. But as I suspected some young folks aren't clear either?
It seems like Ms. has been conflated with Miss and Miss has fallen out of favor, which is fair, but the meanings have been confused.
Ms. has some antique origins similar to Mrs. and Miss (all short for Mistress) but was revived in the 20th century (mostly in the 60s and 70s) by feminists as an all-purpose female title.
The problem with Miss and Mrs. is that they are tied specifically to marital status. (Miss is SPECIFICALLY an unmarried woman and Mrs. is a woman who is married or has been married. Yes, even older women can be Miss and a widow is still Mrs. (of course if they so choose).
While Mr. isn't tied to marital status for men, of course. So Ms. is the female equivalent to Mr., intended to be used both as a default term when you don't know someone's marital status and ALSO as a term of choice when you don't wish to be defined by your relationship to a man.
This was very much a political thing, part of second-wave feminism (which of course has it's flaws). (Ms. magazine was a feminist women's magazine which popularized the term.)
It's pronounced something like Miz or Mzz.
So for me, I've used Ms. basically since I got out of college anytime I'm asked for a title. First because I didn't want my marital status to be a thing of concern in professional settings. And when I was living with my now-husband but we weren't married. And then after we were married and I kept my own last name because IMO neither of the other options was relevant.
(The keeping your own name thing is a different discussion probably, but I did it partly out of desire to stay the same "person" and partly out of apathy. Also my husband's last name isn't even the same as his parents (because remarriage) so there was no pressure there to change it and he gave no fucks about it. In fact, he's almost seriously thought about changing his name to mine because he likes my family better, lol.)
But anyway, I feel like it's important to keep the intention of Ms. alive because it's so very useful and needed to have an equal partner to Mr. And more useful than ever with so many situations where you may be married/committed but not using your partner's name (ie. gay married, poly relationships, not legally married for reasons of disability, idk whatever).
But Ms. does NOT mean unmarried. It means someone could be of ANY marital status: never married, currently married, divorced, widowed, etc. It means "it's not your business because you don't ask a man his marital status the first second you meet him so buzz off."
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