Feminine Honorifics

Over here the title Ms (pronounced mzz) can be used by both married and unmarried women.

It was meant to simplify things but it's now more complicated with three possible titles instead of two. Some women really hate Ms, associating it with radical feminism.

I think the "gentle" in "gentleman" refers to one who was a member of the landed gentry, upper class people but without royal lineage.

You could apply to be a gentleman, it cost money but you got your own coat of arms. Shakespeare's dad notably became a gentleman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shakespeare

People who were not obliged to work with their hands were said to be "gently" born. As has been pointed out, "Ms." can be women without reference to whether the woman in question is married. It does not seem to offend.

That is likely where the term "gents" came from.

"Fellows" is also often associated with a club or class status.

Though "fellow" can also simply describe a younger male.

Men seem to like to adorn themselves with these honorifics to exalt themselves above others much like "We the queen of England." exalts a female monarch.

One can be a lord and the importance of that word depends on the capitalization.

lord, Lord or LORD...

And then there is "sir"... your majesty and your highness.

Your majesty and your highness terms are gender neutral.

I am not sure if "frau" denotes any type of marital status.

Then then are entire languages based around masculine and feminine words.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters
"Excerpt"
If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know that in many languages, nouns —even inanimate objects— have grammatical gender. Russian, French, Spanish, and Arabic are all examples of such languages. In French, wine and chocolate are masculine. In Arabic, soup and the calendar year are feminine. Speakers of these languages must take care to mark gender with definite articles and pronouns. They also must alter adjectives and even verbs for gender agreement.

There may be blurred lines as to how people of different cultures interpret "Ms"

Many unmarried women find it insulting to be called "Mrs" while there is no honorific whatsoever to refer to an unmarried man. (You have to look for a wedding ring to ascertain that.)

It seems insulting that one has to be introduced as a single, sexually available person as if their marital status eclipses their very worth as an individual.

Fellow does not have, and never has had the implication you impute to it. It is well recorded in several sources, for example, that King Henry V (reign, 1413-1422) addressed his troops as "fellows," without regard to age, nor to social condition. Fellow simply means an associate, a comrade, someone engaged in the same activity.

Gender assignments are pretty random in French--the word for breast is sein, which is a masculine noun. The word for beard is barbe, which is a feminine noun.

This is going to be like that other thread, isn't it, where you just made it up as you went along.

Actually the word fellows does have the connotation I ascribed to it.

Have you ever hear of the word "fellowship"?

Google definition:
Friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests.

and then there is this:

Odd Fellows


Odd Fellows, or Oddfellows, also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship,[1] is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London.[2][3] The first known lodge was called Loyal Aristarcus Lodge No. 9, suggesting there were earlier ones in the 18th century. Notwithstanding, convivial meetings were held "in much revelry and, often as not, the calling of the Watch to restore order."[2] Names of several British pubs today suggest past Odd Fellows affiliations. In the mid-18th century, following the Jacobite risings, the fraternity split into the rivaling Order of Patriotic Oddfellows in southern England, favouring William III of England, and the Ancient Order of Oddfellows in northern England and Scotland, favouring the House of Stuart.[2]

Odd Fellows from that time include John Wilkes (1725–1797) and Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet of Thornton (1726–1784), advocating civil liberties and reliefs, including Catholic emancipation. Political repressions such as the Unlawful Oaths Act (1797) and the Unlawful Societies Act (1799),[4] resulted in neutral amalgamation of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows in 1798. Since then the fraternity has remained religiously and politically independent. George IV of the United Kingdom, admitted in 1780, was the first documented of many Odd Fellows to also attend freemasonry, although the societies remain mutually independent.[citation needed]

In 1810, further instigations led to the establishment of the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity in England. Odd Fellows spread overseas, including formally chartering the fraternity in the United States in 1819. In 1842, due to British authorities intervening in the customs and ceremonies of British Odd Fellows and in light of post-colonial American sovereignty, the American Odd Fellows became independent as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows under British-American Thomas Wildey (1782–1861), soon constituting the largest sovereign grand lodge. Likewise, by the mid-19th century, the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity become the largest and richest fraternal organisation in the United Kingdom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows

Comment:
So the word "Fellows" had long been associated with fraternal secret society "clubs" occupied by men only...


http://davislodge.org/dmc-just-look-numbers-odd-fellows/

We have 115 Odd Fellows Lodges in California (not counting the jurisdictional Gene J. Bianchi Lodge). Of those 115 Lodges, there are 17 Lodges that have a unique distinction. These 17 Lodges are:

Diamond Springs #9 15 members
Suisun #78 32 members
Mountain Brow #82 95 members
Vacaville #83 85 members
Santa Crux #96 30 members
Scio #102 21 members
Coulterville #104 18 members
Evergreen #161 42 members
Saint Helena #167 59 members
Montezuma #172 55 members
Ventura #201 62 members
Santa Barbara #232 17 members
Lodi #259 124 members
Little Lake #277 14 members
Grafton #293 19 members
Spring Valley #316 46 members
San Fernando #365 22 members

The unique feature about these 17 Lodges is that of their 756 members, 756 are men and 0 are women. In the “old days” of Odd Fellowship, men joined the Odd Fellows Lodges and women joined the Rebekah Lodges. That changed at the turn of this Century.

There are many "fellowships" across the world that often require dues and a shared common interest be it that the member share the same secular, religious or sexist zeal... Though, most of them owe their homage to the latter.

there was

it has fallen out of fashion

not insulting
it is simply incorrect

It might be helpful if you did a tiny study on linguistics/etymology before launching into this type of thread.

Definition of gentlewoman. 1a : a woman of noble or gentle birth. b : a woman who is an attendant upon a lady of rank. 2 : a woman of refined manners or good breeding : lady.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr.

Mister, usually written in its abbreviated form Mr. (US) or Mr (UK), is a commonly used English honorific for men under the rank of knighthood. The title derived from earlier forms of master, as the equivalent female titles Mrs, Miss, and Ms all derived from earlier forms of mistress. Master is sometimes still used as an honorific for boys and young men, but its use is increasingly uncommon.

The modern plural form is Misters, although its usual formal abbreviation Messrs(.)[note 1] derives from use of the French title messieurs in the 18th century.[1][4] Messieurs is the plural of monsieur (originally mon sieur, "my lord"), formed by declining both of its constituent parts separately.[4]

It seem "gentlewoman" has fallen out of fashion also.

Or the addressing would not be "ladies and gentlemen"...

It would be more like, "gentlemen and gentlewomen".

You have only simply reinforced my argument.

And until marriage equality, many feminists were repulsed by being called Mrs... Even today feminists are repulsed by the sorry state of sexism in honorifics.

I know a lot of feminists and lesbians, being a gay man, and traveling in the same circles... My gay lifestyle is unavoidably, a daily research project in social etiquette.

The address, ladies and gentlemen, appears to connote that elite men are surrounded by an abundance of common ladies.

Does that not seem a bit offensive?

It is no wonder why young heterosexual men are becoming clones of the Brett Kavanaughs of the world...

Our language has sexism hardwired into it...

Thanks for this post, it does shed light on the subject.

Your comment that fellows referred to "younger men" or men of a lower social order was false.

Don't "comment," go out and learn.

If you are interested in words, their history and use - please please please spend some time reviewing the etymology.

Making up things is simply not helpful.

__

Go to your OP and look up the etymology of each word. There is a lot of serious study already done in this area - there are facts you will enjoy learning.

there is some excellent research (as well as some awful shoddy work) in this area - talk to your local librarian about good reference materials