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From: daemon
To: MUSEUM-L
Subject: Re: Titles & Genders
Date: Wednesday, 30 October 1996 11:31AM



Mate,
You sound like you're a hundred, and you're probably a lost cause, but
'ladies' and 'gentlemen' - and indeed 'gentlepersons' are antiquated
class-referenced terms better superseded by simple' men' and 'women' or, as
so many of us write, 'dear all'.

Heleanor Feltham ([log in to unmask])

On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Charlotte Douglas wrote:

>      <<I think that using "Gentlemen" as a salutation is harmless, and
> suggest that anyone who gets really uptight about it should look inward
> rather than outward for the source of distress>>
>
> Perhaps you would understand if all your correspondence were suddenly
> addressed "Ladies:"

     Because I am not a corporation or other institution, the only people
who address me other than individually are junk mailers who either address
me as Occupant or using my whole name. I don't care how junk mailers
address me. Strangers know my sex from my name.

     As I explained in the whole, brief text of my posting, which you
chose to excerpt misleadingly, I address unknown recipients as "Dear
Gentlepersons," which sounds silly but is intended not to offend.

     Your reply plain *was* designed to offend. Apparently I was in error
when I assumed that members of a professional museum group would be either
gentlemen or gentlewomen.

     Hank Burchard * <[log in to unmask]> * Washington DC | USA