It's one of the first distinctions visitors to France learn to make: the title "Mademoiselle" for young, unmarried women, and "Madame" for other women.
But now a feminist group is trying to scrap the traditional French equivalent of the English "Miss" with an online petition for it to be outlawed, leaving only "Madame" for all adult French women.
"The USA and Great Britain are more advanced than us on this subject," says the petition, put out by a 40-year-old psychoanalyst and supported by the group Les Chiennes de Garde (which means "The Female Guard Dogs" in English).
PHOTO: AP
They argue that France is now ready for change like the English "Ms," which was first introduced into English a couple of decades ago in an effort to get rid of "Mrs" and "Miss."
The petition's author said she resolved to attack the use of "Mademoiselle" when she was forced to sign the title before her name while recently buying an apartment.
She argues on the Web site www.lapetition.com/sign1.cfm?numero=1099 that "Mademoiselle" is discriminatory because it differentiates between women who are sexually available and those who are not, whereas the simple "Monsieur" applied to all adult men does not.
As a result, the petition calls for "Madame" to be used in all cases.
The petition is due to be submitted to the French minister for sexual equality, Catherine Vautrin, within the next few months.
So far, the petition has more than 2,300 electronic signatures, according to Le Parisien newspaper. (AFP)
遊訪法國，首先要學會分別以「Mademoiselle」稱呼年輕未婚女子，以「Madame」稱呼其他女子。
但現在有女性主義團體正連署一份網路請願書，籲請政府明令廢除「Mademoiselle」這個相當於英文「Miss」的傳統用法，只保留適用全法國成年女性的「Madame」。
請願書寫到，「美國和英國在這方面比我們還先進」。該請願書是由一名四十歲的心理分析學家所發表，並得到 Les Chiennes de Garde（英文的意思是「女性看門狗」）團體的支持。
她們主張，法國現在能迎接如英文「Ms」的用法改變。為了擺脫「 Mrs」和「Miss」的用法，英文早在幾十年前就開始使用「Ms」。
請願書的作者說，最近因購買公寓時被迫在名字前簽上「Mademoiselle」，便決心挑戰「Mademoiselle」的用法。
她在網站 www.lapetition.com/sign1.cfm?numero=1099 上主張，「Mademoiselle」將女性依性行為合宜性作區分，有歧視意味，反觀適用所有成年男子的「Monsieur」便無這層意涵。
請願書因此呼籲對女性一律使用「Madame」。
這份請願書預計在未來幾個月內提交給法國性別平等部部長凱薩琳*弗川。
巴黎人報指出，截至目前為止，這份電子請願書有超過兩千三百人連署。 （法新社／翻譯：鄭湘儀）
In an effort to fight phone scams, British mobile phone company O2 has introduced Daisy, an AI designed to engage phone con artists in time-wasting conversations. Daisy is portrayed as a kindly British granny, exploiting scammers’ tendency to target the elderly. Her voice, based on a real grandmother’s for authenticity, adds to her credibility in the role. “O2” has distributed several dedicated phone numbers online to direct scammers to Daisy instead of actual customers. When Daisy receives a call, she translates the scammers’ spoken words into text and then responds to them accordingly through a text-to-speech system. Remarkably, Daisy
Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 Emma had reviewed 41 resumes that morning. While the ATS screened out 288 unqualified, she screened for AI slop. She could spot it a mile away. She muttered AI buzzwords like curses under her breath. “Team player.” “Results-driven.” “Stakeholder alignment.” “Leveraging core competencies.” Each resume reeked of AI modeling: a cemetery of cliches, tombstones of personality. AI wasn’t just changing hiring. It was draining the humanity from it. Then she found it: a plain PDF cover letter. No template. No design flourishes. The first line read: “I once tried to automate my
Every May 1, Hawaii comes alive with Lei Day, a festival celebrating the rich culture and spirit of the islands. Initiated in 1927 by the poet Don Blanding, Lei Day began as a tribute to the Hawaiian custom of making and wearing leis. The idea was quickly adopted and officially recognized as a holiday in 1929, and leis have since become a symbol of local pride and cultural preservation. In Hawaiian culture, leis are more than decorative garlands made from flowers, shells or feathers. For Hawaiians, giving a lei is as natural as saying “aloha.” It shows love and
1. 他走出門，左右看一下，就過了馬路。 ˇ He walked outside, looked left and right, and crossed the road. χ He walked outside and looked left and right, crossed the road. 註︰並列連接詞 and 在這句中連接三個述語。一般的結構是 x, y, and z。x and y and z 是加強語氣的結構，x and y, z 則不可以。 2. 他們知道自己的弱點以及如何趕上其他競爭者。 ˇ They saw where their weak points lay and how they could catch up with the other competitors. χ They saw where their weak points lay and how to catch up with the other competitors. 註：and 一般連接同等成分，結構相等的單詞、片語或子句。誤句中 and 的前面是子句，後面是不定詞片語，不能用 and 連接，必須把不定詞片語改為子句，and 前後的結構才相等。 3. 她坐上計程車，直接到機場。 ˇ She took a cab, which took her straight to the airport. ˇ She took a cab and it took her straight
RSS