did you know…?
Uncategorized | Tags: feminism, Ms., Sheila Michaels
This is Sheila Michaels—in 1961 & more recently.
A feminist & civil rights activist, Michaels is credited with “discovering” & popularizing the title of Ms.
As the story goes, Michaels saw the typo “Ms.” on a piece of her roommate’s mail & decided it was the perfect alternative to having to choose between “Miss” & “Mrs.,” giving women the right to not be defined by marriage.
Sadly, Ms. Michaels passed away on June 22nd, at the ages of 78.
Comments
7 Comments • Comments Feed
Kathleen O says:
I always wondered who started this trend… Thanks for sharing. :flower:
On July 24, 2017 at 10:11 am
Heidi says:
I find this sort of thing fascinating…glad you agree. :highfive:
On July 24, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Mary Kirkland says:
Well that is interesting. I never would have known that.
On July 24, 2017 at 1:52 pm
Heidi says:
Me, either! It never even occurred to me to wonder about it. :wall:
On July 24, 2017 at 2:47 pm
Minna says:
Oh, so that’s who I can blame when I’m wondering how am I supposed to translate Ms. in Finnish, since we only have “Miss” & “Mrs.” . :argh:
On July 25, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Heidi says:
LOL That’s fascinating; never thought about it for other languages. But I’m surprised they don’t have something in-between in Finnish. :dammit:
On July 25, 2017 at 8:24 pm
Minna says:
I think it’s because in some ways English is more flexible than Finnish. For instance, in the case of “Miss” & “Mrs.” all you need to do is drop one letter and you get “Ms”, but we have “neiti” and “rouva”. Um, I don’t know, I certainly have no idea how to make a new word from those 2 words. So instead of any new politically correct words, you hardly ever see or hear words “neiti” and “rouva” these days. :flower:
On July 26, 2017 at 5:15 am