What strikes me about this article is not so much the part about Wimbledon dropping “Miss” and “Mrs” to bring the women’s honour board into line with the men’s, but that married women were literally listed as “Mrs. [Husband’s initials and surname]”. Like Chris Evans’ 1981 title is credited to “Mrs J.M. Lloyd”.
I do know that women used to be spoken of this way in certain formal contexts, but it strikes me as so bizarre and dehumanising, as if married women are mere appendages of their husbands. Admittedly, I’m not someone who ever even considered changing my last name if I got married (why should my last name be considered disposable?) but at least “Mrs. HerActualFirstName SurnameSheVoluntarilyAdopted” is not dehumanising like the naming strategy Wimbledon has apparently been using up until now.
For what it’s worth, I hate the honorifics “Miss” and “Mrs” too. You don’t need to know a man’s marital status before you can properly address a letter to him; why should a woman be any different? If a title is required I’m Team “Ms” all the way. I’m also in favour of not even using honorifics if you don’t absolutely have to, so I guess it’s good Wimbledon is making that change too, but man… they get no credit if it’s taken them this long to fix the “listing married female champions under their husband’s name” thing.
