Matrimania at Yahoo
What a rude surprise I got this morning! Upon signing in to manage one of AtMP’s Yahoo groups, I was instructed to create new secret questions. Yahoo helpfully suggests lots of question possibilities. But strikingly, four of their top five suggestions assume I am married!
Thanks to Bella DePaulo for coining the wonderful word “matrimania” so I know what to call this!
I was so insulted (rather amused, too) that I dropped whatever I was supposed to be doing for the Yahoo group and wrote this post instead. Then I pasted this post, plus some statistics about the number of potentially offended unmarried people in the U.S., into Yahoo’s feedback form.
I encourage you to send Yahoo feedback as well – this is a perfect opportunity for unmarried consumers to show their strength!
August 21st, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Nicky, I am so grateful to you for bringing this up! I had noticed something similar in an online form at my local bank and thought, well maybe it’s just a local thing (not that that would make it OK). Feedback to Yahoo is a great idea.
August 21st, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’ve lodged my complaint. Argh!
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:39 am
Nicky,
I noticed this too, but instead of taking screen shots (good job!) I just scribbled down some cranky notes to a future posting. I’m glad to see you jumped on this. I’m off to Yahoo feedback!!
Christina at Onely
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
Done! I sent them my “piece of my unmarried mind” when I first saw this! Obviously, they need to get a lot more flack before they’ll change this incredibly matrimaniac attitude. So, let’s spread the word and ask people to complain to Yahoo!
August 29th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I’m a never married single and have run into all kinds of nasty singlisms through out my life, but I think you folks are over reacting to this one. I’m not a wife or mother, but I am an aunt, a neice, a cousin and a daughter. So, while I can’t answer any of the four questions related to being married or a parent, I can answer any of the remaining seven questions. In the second category, there are only two out of 17 questions related to marriage. That leaves 15 other topics to answer. Among those questions, they assume I like movies enough to have a favorite (I don’t), that I have a favorite sports team (I hate sports), that I own a motorcycle (wouldn’t get me on one of those machines for anything!) or that I fly often enough to get frequent flyer miles.
While I get riled up about the stereotyping and assumptions about singles, this questionaire ain’t one of them.
September 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I’m so glad you called Yahoo out on their singlist behavior, Nicky. I recently had a similar experience when I did jury duty. All potential jurors were given a laminated sheet with about ten questions on it. The second question asked us to state our spouse’s occupation. I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me though, since this took place in the State of Florida, a state that voted in the most recent election not to recognize any relationship other than marriage as legal.
Another thing that annoys me is those ads on Facebook. As soon as I indicated that I was single, I had all kinds of ads coming up on my site about how to meet men to date. I have been voting them all a “thumbs down” with a written in explanation of why. Good thing Facebook gives people an opportunity to vote on their ads.