Bonjour mademoiselle!

There is a debate going on in the shallow press at the moment about the French decision to stop using the term ‘Mademoiselle’, due to protests in France that a woman’s title should not be defined by her marital status or her relationship with a man.

This has been picked up by various organic muesli munching feminists and a number of (so called) trendy thinking leftist males as the biggest leap forward for women’s liberation since the contraceptive pill.

Frankly, I think it’s all a load of b******s. Don’t these people have anything more serious to worry about?

The French initiative, of course, smacks of the lovely Mrs Sarkozy’s influence and her pathetic little husband’s desire to woo a large proportion of the electorate in advance of the French presidential elections later this year. Nicholas is lagging in the polls in a serious way, and resorting to desperate measures. Quite what excuse the vacuous English have for jumping on the bandwagon I’m not sure. Possibly because it’s been in the Daily Mail?

Underneath all this is, of course, a serious point. We almost always make assumptions about people based upon their names, titles and first impressions, which can last a lifetime. They say it takes about six seconds to form an initial impression of someone, and if that is deceptive it can take several years for us to change our minds. So it’s important to get it right at the beginning, particularly if it matters how you appear to others in any context.  We tend to think that someone using the prefix ‘Your honour’ (as in a high court judge) must be a good chap(ess)whereas someone using the title ‘Rt Hon’ (for instance an MP) must be a bounder and a cad! I generalise, but you get the point.

It is foolish though to think that just because a woman chooses to call herself ‘Miss’ she must be single or if she calls herself ‘Mrs’ she must be married (what about widowed, divorced, separated, just pretending to keep away irritating men?). I know lots of women who have retained their maiden name and ‘Miss’ just because they want to, or maybe their husband happens to be called Gummer and they are called Streep (for instance). I mean, would you want to collect your Oscar being called Mrs Gummer? No, didn’t think so!

There are so many more important things in the world to sort out and so many more issues between the sexes to be resolved than this pathetic little publicity stunt. Equal pay, equal recognition for achievement, respect for each other; all would be better for us to exercise our intelligence about than this. I read today that about 30% of rapes go unreported because women have no confidence in the police to take them seriously, and of those that are reported about 10% are dismissed as ‘no crime’ because one policeman forms an impression at the station desk. That is a disgrace, and something far more fundamental to be addressed than a pathetic title.

I’ve used all three feminine titles in my time, and none of them have defined me as a person. Anyone who thinks they do, is deluded.