Given my chosen profession, how language is used is of great interest to me. One of my favourite ‘reads’ is an excellent weblog written by a professional translator: don’t be put off by the title!
Now, as any fule kno, French women enjoy two modes of address. It seems that feminism has just discovered or rediscovered the French language, and is attempting to do something about it. Interestingly, as that post describes, the French feminist does not seem to wish to create a new word - a French translation of the English “Ms” - but rather to make “Madame” the standard mode of address for all women.
Whereas the English debate, at a linguistic level at any rate, has generally been about giving women additional choice, this current French debate is far more obviously about removing individual choice in the name of greater collective freedom. On the wisdom, aesthetics, benefits or costs of such a choice I make no comment; in the words of the song:
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’.
I must admit that I hadn’t thought that the Madam/mademoiselle distinction was in fact as closely tied to marriage as that post suggests, but perhaps someone more familiar with French usage or usages will enlighten me.