Let’s say there’s someone I want to call Mr/Ms/Mrs [Name], but I don’t know their gender, is there a title I can use that doesn’t assume their gender?
@BackOnMyBS Mix (Mx.) is the most common. I personally prefer Misser (Msr.), but that’s even rarer. Informally I just tell people to call me comrade or friend.
@BackOnMyBS Mx. Not widely used.
I’ve heard it as “Mix” but it’s mostly used in written reporting from what I’ve seen so pronunciation may vary
I say “mix”. Probably heard it online somewhere. It also makes sense as it’s more similar to “miss” and “mister” than “mux” is.
“Hey, you!”
Doctor, Professor.
And that isn’t even enough, I’ve had my PhD since 2015 and only my colleagues might address me as “doctor”. I’ve since quit caring.
I have started just using M. Like, “Dear M. Lastname”. I saw it being done in French and just adopted it for English too. No one’s complained yet. (Have also seen Mx. but figure that could be confusing.)
Just fyi, M. in French is only equivalent to Mr, it’s short for Monsieur. Mme (short for Madame) is equivalent to Mrs, and Mlle (short for Mademoiselle) is equivalent to Miss/Ms.
So using M. for everyone is equivalent to saying Mr. for everyone.
In the sci-fi book Hyperion (which takes place hundreds of years in the future) they use this convention throughout and it works really well, so I’ve also wished that it were widely adopted in our society. (Except for androids, where the title is A. rather than M.)
I’ve been playing though Prey and seeing people refer to Morgan Yu as “M. Yu” always throws me for a loop because I think they’re using an honorific. Doesn’t help that Morgan is already designed to be a gender-ambivalent character so the player can choose their gender and the story will still be the same
