Using the word "mademoiselle", or "miss", on official forms will be banned in France after prime minister François Fillon issued an instruction to all ministries to drop the term.

"/> Using the word "mademoiselle", or "miss", on official forms will be banned in France after prime minister François Fillon issued an instruction to all ministries to drop the term.

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FEMINISM

‘Mademoiselle’ officially banned in France

Using the word "mademoiselle", or "miss", on official forms will be banned in France after prime minister François Fillon issued an instruction to all ministries to drop the term.

'Mademoiselle' officially banned in France
madameoumadame.fr

Asking a woman’s “maiden name” (or “nom de jeune fille” in French) or “married name” will also be banished from official documents.

Instead, all women will be known as “madame” in future, “just like the equivalent of “monsieur” for men, which does not prejudge their marital status” said the official note.

Instead, the simple “nom de famille” (“family name”) will replace masculine terms such as “nom patronymique” and “nom d’époux”.

The prime minister has instructed his ministers to get the terms removed “as soon as possible” although officials will be allowed to use up existing stocks of forms so as not to waste public funds.

The move is a surprise success for two feminist groups who launched a campaign to banish “mademoiselle”.

Osez le Féminisme and Les Chiennes de Garde launched their campaign to banish the term in September.

“There is no reason for two salutations for women which divide them into two categories: married and unmarried,” said Julie Muret, spokeswoman for Osez le Féminisme, at the time.

Their campaign found support from the solidarity minister, Roselyne Bachelot, who said in November she had asked the prime minister to issue the order.

In recent months a number of towns around the country have started to issue the order to dispose of “mademoiselle”.

The two feminist organisations which launched the campaign issued a statement on Tuesday welcoming the “concrete results” of the campaign.

They called on “companies and private organisations to follow the move by removing the terms from their own documents.”

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TAMPONS

Two German men face backlash over ‘Pinky’ period glove product

Two German men who came up with a pink glove to help women dispose of tampons have sparked a backlash on social media, with critics panning the product as useless and sexist.

Two German men face backlash over 'Pinky' period glove product
A tampon being displayed after its manufacturer. Photo: DPA

At a menstrual cramp-inducing 11.96 for a pack of 48, the Pinky is a plastic glove that doubles as a disposal bag to provide a “discreet solution for pads and tampons”, according to the product website.

Andre Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow, who met in the army, presented their product on Monday on the German version of the Dragons’ Den TV show where inventors pitch to potential investors, drawing 30,000 from an entrepreneur.

But the two men quickly found themselves facing a slew of disparaging comments on social media, with the hashtag #PinkyGate trending on Twitter on Wednesday.

“We both really do understand women,” Raimkulow said on the TV show, basing their qualifications on both being married and having lived with women in flat shares.

Occasionally, he would “dare to look in the rubbish bin”, he said.

“After a while it just smells unpleasant. And you can see it, because it starts seeping through the paper.”

READ ALSO: Tampon tax: Why menstral products are set to become cheaper in Germany

“Every day there is another useless product for the vagina,” tweeted Canadian-American gynaecologist Jennifer Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible. “I need to throw (the book) at these idiots,” she said.

Even the conservative daily Die Welt waded in, pointing out that plastic gloves and disposal bags can already be bought for a fraction of the price — albeit in other colours.

“Is this a real invention? No,” it said. “It is no surprise that there are no women behind the Pinky but two men, who have no experience of using sanitary products.”

Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow published a video on Wednesday addressing the criticism.

“In no way did we mean to suggest that menstruation is something disgusting,” they said, adding: “We realise that we have not fully taken on board different views on the subject.”

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