Sunday 16 January 2022

so, jetzt reicht’s aber, fräulein

Though since 1951 in East Germany, women could use the designation “Frau,” missus without applying for permission from the state, this is—proof of marriage, acknowledging that the classification of entire female sex in terms of its declared relationship to a man and while the fact that martial status was a private matter for males but a salutation of public interest for woman was highly problematic and inegalitarian, it was not until this day in 1972 in West Germany that the term Fräulein (the predicate a relatively new one, introduced in 1869 whereas in previous eras it was a binary Herr or Mann/Frau) was stricken from official use by the Ministry of the Interior under the Hans-Dietrich Genscher and ought to be avoided (along with comparable honourifics in other languages, like Miss and Mademoiselle) as a sexist and demeaning distinction.