Peeved by This Blog

I wrote a bunch of peeved posts, but alas, they have now disappeared. Thus I am peeved by this blog!

Don't worry -- we'll be back to our regularly scheduled ranting soon!

--Curly

Untitled

I am constantly annoyed by people assuming that since I am a woman, I must be either a Miss or a Mrs. I find this assumption upsetting for many reasons.

Miss to me refers to a little girl, not to a grown woman, and Mrs. is only for a woman who is married and has taken her husband's name. So as an unmarried, grown woman, neither of those names is appropriate. Instead, I would prefer Ms., which is often not recognized as a possibility.

But in fact I happen to be Dr. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't go around bragging about this, but when people ask me if I am Miss or Mrs., I immediately reply, "Actually, I'm Dr."

Why do people believe that Miss and Mrs. are the only two possible options for women? Why don't they consider that women may have advanced degrees? And what about women who married but haven't changed their last names? Or women who are unmarried and are adults?

How hard is to think of women as something other than girls or wives?

--Dr. Curly

Prunella's Return, and a New Rant Resource

Prunella lives!

I must apologize for my long absence. Please be assured that this blog has not been far from my mind. Especially on Sundays.

That's when I read and enjoy the "Complaint Box" in the Sunday "Metropolitan" section of The New York Times. Today I noticed this note alongside the column itself:

"Steamed? Dish out the peeves. Send your essays of up to 500 words to metropolitan(at)nytimes(dot)com."

If only guidelines that don't specify pay rates didn't peeve me so much!

--Prunella Peeve

All the Single Ladies (and Gents)

In recent times, I've had a number of conversations in which single people have complained about how others treat them. I had been aware that many partnered people are uncomfortable with singletons and try to set them up with romantic partners or don't include them or even just drop them, but I hadn't understood quite to what extent this happens.

Lots of people are single. Many -- perhaps most? -- are happy with this state of affairs (or, rather, this state of lack of affairs). Why should this make paired people uncomfortable?

People should be complete in and of themselves and not only when they are half of a couple. It isn't fair to treat single men and women differently than we would the coupled.

--Curly

Preaching to the Unconverted, Part 2

Sorry, I must continue my rant against missionaries. In my last post, I complained about it on a personal level, but obviously it is a much bigger issue than that. I simply think it is wrong to go to another country/culture believing that you know better than the people there and that you possess the sole truth and must convince those people of it. During history, there have been many examples of people forcing their religion onto others, often using violence to do so, and this has lead to many problems, including the spread of diseases and the loss of languages and cultures and traditions. I think we should all have the right to believe what we want and act however we choose as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else detrimentally. We should respect others and to me it is very disrespectful if we think we have the answers and must convince/force others to believe what we do.

--Curly

Preaching to the Unconverted

I don’t believe in proselytizing (I don’t believe in religion in general, but that’s another story!). I believe in everyone living and let live. I am so tired of missionaries – mostly Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses – coming to my home and bothering me. I try to be polite, but they keep talking and trying to convert me. I don’t like offending people, so I take their materials, but I wish they would leave it at that and go away. Instead, they stay, complimenting me on my smile and my looks, telling me Jesus made me that way and that I need to let Jesus into my heart. Well, religion (or lack thereof) is very personal and I wish others didn’t make it their business to try to convert people.

--Curly