Ms. Feminista

Magnify

I was a teenager in the ’80s, so most of the feminist work had already been done by women before me. Most of the time I am just a freeloader, taking advantage of all the benefits they struggled so hard for, enjoying the spoils of battles I didn’t have to fight.

The majority of college freshmen I teach, however, were born in the ’90s, and their formal education about historical events seems to have stopped after World War II and then picked up again about 50 years later with their own personal experiences. As a result, a large chunk of history and culture has been lost to them, including the women’s movement. This was made apparent to me while we were studying Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

We had just started reading the book and were discussing the names of the handmaids, the group of women designated to be childbearers in this society. They had names like Ofwarren, Ofglen, and Offred, and I was explaining that the male part of their names showed which Commander they were “working” for, and the “of” indicated that they belonged to that Commander. For example, the handmaid who was to create a baby for Warren and his wife was named Ofwarren to show that she belonged to Warren. Most students hadn’t picked up on this during their reading but were horrified at my explanation, I was glad to see. Ever mindful of making class information applicable to their lives, I took this idea one step further.

“It’s similar to this,” I said, turning to write on the board. “Say I marry Jacob Brandt here,” and the class giggled as I pointed to the male student nearest to me. “My name would then become this,” and I wrote on the board: “Mrs. Jacob Brandt.” Turning back to the class, I watched their faces as they compared this to the handmaids’ names.

“Most women don’t use this anymore,” I said, “but most will still take their husband’s last name like this,” and I wrote “Mrs. Lisa Brandt” on the board.

I decided to keep going as a tribute to my bra-burning sisters.

“That was the whole point of creating the title ‘Ms.’”

The students looked at me blankly.

“What’s that?” one student finally asked.

“Anyone know what it is?” I asked.

Not one student raised their hand. I have to say I was a little surprised that this form of address was completely unknown to them, but I realized it was a great teaching opportunity.