By Ananya Ak
In a move that is both bold and broad-minded, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) recently made a provision for its students to choose a gender-neutral salutation on their certificates. Starting with this years graduates, whose convocation will take place in May 2018, the students have the option to be addressed as Mx in addition to the usual Mr, Ms, Mrs and Dr, on the forms they fill out before their convocation.
Several alternate honorifics
The title Mx was first seen in print in the American magazine Single Parent in the 1970s but has only recently become popular with the public at large. The past few years have witnessed revolutionary changes in peoples mindsets around gender, partly due to the advent of technology that made gender-change possible. Many are now facing up to the fact that transgender people are also people, after all.
There had been attempts at bringing in a gender-neutral honorific before, but salutations like xe, thon and zhe never gained much ground. Mx, however, has gained popularity because of its obvious and wholly logical roots. The M comes from the general prefixing alphabet as in Mr and Mrs while the x stands for the universal unknown.
The result of a request
The initiative is a result of an appeal mailed to the Institutes administration by Sai Tejo, a student of Second Year MA-Criminology and Justice, as well as a member of the TISS queer collective. The move stems from his idea that gender non-conforming people are often compelled to choose one of the available gender-specific salutations and that this is unfair. Sai received a reply from the institution a few days later, noting that his request had been approved and that the gender-neutral Mx would now be an option for students while filling in their graduation forms. While this was not officially announced by the Institute, the news has been spreading throughout the college through social media to let everyone know that this new option is available.
Sai was quoted by DNA saying, Gender non-conforming people or those who do not associate themselves with the gender binaries of male and female are often forced to pick a gendered salutation in application forms and documents. I wrote to the administration, requesting them to add Mx which is a gender-neutral salutation that students can opt for and their graduation will carry that title.
Catching on internationally
Harish Iyer, an activist for equal rights, commended the Institute for its initiative. In his opinion, being called by a prefix that one does not relate to is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. He was quoted by DNA saying, This addition of Mx will go a long way and I hope that other institutions, too, add it to their list. Mx is already officially recognised by the British Government, among others.
The old adage Whats in a name? A rose by any other name smells just as sweet” comes to mind here, as in this case, the name is everything. The practice of adding a ‘Prefer not to say’ option in the ‘Gender’ column on official application forms was introduced a while back, but the salutation is something that often escapes notice.
In an age of increasing tolerance, it is natural that all social courtesies be extended to people who were once ostracised and considered ‘queer’. The feelings of everyone matter equally and no ones discomfort is inferior or superior. Keeping this in mind, the move by TISS is an extremely progressive step and sets an example for others to follow.
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