Me Myself And Mx By Katherine Rosman Summary

The New York Time, published an article, written by Katherine Rosman called “Me, Myself and Mx.”. The article is about a new word that is being considered by one of the publishers of the online oxfordDictionaries.com. The word that is being considered is Mx. In which it will be used as a gender-neutral alternative to Ms. and Mr. In Britain, the word is already being utilized by a local bank because of customer’s request. Also, the British culture is more open than the United States with the idea of two genders. However, once Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, people did not know how to identify Caitlyn, and that is when the ideas of using Mx. came into play. Although, the word Mx. has been known to come up throughout the years to represent single parents, unknown gender, and people in transition it is not yet a word in the Oxford Dictionary. When the idea of making Mx. a word in
the dictionary became known there was an overwhelmingly positive response. There were also people that believe maybe we should get rid of the Ms., Mr., and Mx. altogether so then people do not have to be worried about being classified as a particular gender. Chapter five from Larry Andrews’ book, Language Exploration and Awareness, relates to the article called “Me, Myself and Mx.” Larry Andrews explains that language and culture are linked and the two components change together.
In the case of the article, the United States and transgender cultures are changing, and people are becoming more excepting of the diversities among individuals. Therefore, Mx. should become a word that is regularly used to represent people that are transgender or in a transition of becoming the opposite sex. Andrews states, “The fact that it is relatively easy to create new words, and given the additional linguistic principle that says that whenever there is a need for a new word or a new form, a speech community will create one” (109). Which, the publisher of the online lexicons believes that there is a need for a word to represent people that are transgender or in transition, also due to the high level of positive response the article claims a number of individuals believe that Mx should become an official word that is in the Oxford
dictionary. Mx. has been used in the past to represent people as well as people using the word to describes themselves. Andrews explains, “Accepting a new word is slower than creating” (109). In which Mx. has been used in the past but has not been accepted as a word. The article states that the first citation of the word Mx. was back in 1977, then appeared again in the 1980s. Therefore, the word has been used but not often enough to be inducted into the dictionary. Now that the culture is changing, and people are becoming more accepting the work Mx. may start to be used more and become a word in the dictionary. In my opinion, “Me, Myself and Mx.” is an interesting article, which shows that society is becoming more excepting of people decisions that want to become opposite genders. Also, if this word is used it can help with gender stereotyping, however, I agree with Professor Eagly, who is someone that stated their opinion in the article, that it would be easier to get rid of the Ms., Mr. and Mrs. altogether. Therefore, no gender stereotyping can be taken place on documentations. The article should have included age groups of people who responded positively to this word. I believe the even though people are accepting the concept of transgender, the older generation is not as accepting because they are set in their ways. If the article would have put age groups or statistics on people opinions, I think the article would have been more interesting.