Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Good lord, it happens ALL the time. Not just in period-piece TV. I mean, exactly how many people used to religiously say "Princess Diana," instead of "Diana, the Princess of Wales" or the like? It's endemic.
Nobody EVER says (for example), "Lady Peter" rather than Lady Harriet, amirite?
|
The mousy spinster called Harriet “Lady Peter” in
Busman’s Honeymoon. I’ve not seen Lady Harriet, but I’ve not read any of the non-DLS follow-ons. Someone, a Yank of course, called Peter “Lord Wimsey” in an earlier book, and got the smackdown.
And yes, when I come across it in a book, fiction or non-, they pretty much lose me.
As for Diana, I came around on that one; she was that exception that proved the rule. Everyone used Princess Diana and you’d have come off as having a colossal stick up your arse if you’d insisted on the correct form.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
ALTHOUGH, I have to add--if a commoner (man) marries a titled woman, it's not like HE gets renamed with something possessive, though, is it?
|
So it goes. I can’t bring myself to care about sexism in an archaic and entitled (in every sense) system. A la lanterne with the lot of them. But to the extent the titles still exist, I want them used correctly, dammit!