My wife and I watch a lot of shows on HGTV. Shows like “House Hunters,” “House Hunters International,” “Property Brothers,” and “Love It or List It” to name a few.
I’ve noticed that, over the past month or two, when showing houses to prospective buyers, what has always been called the “master bedroom” is now referred to as either the “main bedroom” or the “owners’ suite.”
I guess the use of the word “master” for that bedroom is considered to be sexist these days.
The term master has often been paired with the word slave and because of this, it carries an historical racist undertone.
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Hmm. I never thought of it in that context.
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I had a friend who’s cousin was involved in an episode of House Hunters International. They were not looking to buy internationally, not looking to buy at all, in fact. They were told exactly what to say and do. I used to love watching those shows until then. Not to be a debby downer. Still fun to watch, as long as it’s all taken with a grain of salt
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I also heard that they have already bought a place. Yes, fun to watch
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Yeah, I’ve read a couple of articles about how many of those shows are staged.
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Don’t worry. No one updated Alexa, so SHE still uses “Master bedroom.” If Alexa still uses it, it’s gotta be good, right?
I think those changes may be a way to make the biggest bedroom seem somehow more important. All our bedrooms are so small, I find it amusing that our bedroom at 16X16 with a tiny powder room attached is “the master bedroom.” Not much of a master! Anything built before the mid 1970s — unless it was a mansion — had small bedrooms because they were easier to keep warm in winter.
When we lived in Boston, our bedroom really WAS a suite. It occupied the entire top floor of the condo with a walk-in closet , full bath, and enough room to have a chair where you could sit and put on your socks along with the rest of the furniture — the ONLY house I’ve owned that had more room than could fit the big bed and the dressers — and it had two skylights which opened for more light. Otherwise, the “master bedroom was usually slightly larger than the next biggest bedroom and maybe had a sink and toilet attached. “Main” bedroom is probably overkill too. It was a really NICE three story condo and if (a) it had something other than electric heat (in New England???) and (b) wasn’t quite so vertical (there were a LOT of stairs!), we’d still be living there.
I figure unless it has a dressing room or big walk-in closets AND an attached FULL bath, it’s ain’t any kind of master anything. But I speak from a house where the bedrooms seem to have been more or less forgotten until someone said “Oh, hey, don’t we want to put in bedrooms?”
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I suppose almost all of the houses I’ve lived in have had a room that was designed as the “master bedroom,” which was the largest bedroom in the house and often had an attached bathroom. I just find it interesting that the term to describe what, ever since I can remember, had been called the master bedroom is now referred to as the main bedroom…at least on HGTV.
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The entitled ones will never stop rewriting both history, and even people’s everyday lives in general
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I just learned that the late actor Charlton Heston gave a speech on this topic at Harvard in 1999. Here’s the link: https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/charlton-heston-s-prophetic-words-on-political-correctness/
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Well, I’m not sure that calling a master bedroom a main bedroom rises to the level of what Charlton Heston was referring to in his speech, but I take your point. I may be left leaning, but I do think political correctness in this country has run amok.
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Oh, for some god’s sake. Are you still play acting like Biden didn’t win the election? Playing into the grift that people should make money off that lie? From “billionaire” Trump to whoever this guy is (not Heston now but the one using Heston’s name) — cha-ching.
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Slipped in at the end, words that are not from Charlton Heston:
Complaining to like-minded friends about fraud in the presidential elections, criticizing our governor in our homes but with no public protest: these may relieve some of our anxiety, but they do nothing to change our world for the better.
Our silence and obedience makes us our own oppressors. …
It is not the case that there was (and is) no public protesting (and worse) pertaining to COVID-19 or on the made up election fraud concepts.
I’m not familiar with what Virginia did with regard to their governor, but I wouldn’t want to stoke the idea they should do what some malcontents in other states have done.
And now we know what doing something contrarian about the frenzy as to the election, instead of being obedient, has led to (so far). These people are not making our world better.
The far-right has their own political correctness. And it’s lethal.
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This writer, by the name of Jeff, ended this way (and then advertised Parler):
Our silence[*] and obedience makes us our own oppressors. It’s time to listen to Mr. Heston.
Note from me (Marleen): *so-called (there wasn’t actually silence)
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Quotation of Jeff Minick from linked article, beginning with Heston: “When Time magazine’s cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month [January of 1999], boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.”
The reason why Americans should offer this resistance, Heston explains, is “so that this nation may long endure.” Therefore, he urges his listeners “to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.”
Regarding political correctness and the future, Heston tells his audience, “Among other things, it means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can’t be far behind.”
We are living that future right now.
🥺 {Notice, this version of “cancel culture” (the conservative kind) got flipped out. Donald Trump and people on Parler told people what to do after saying what they should think.
Nevertheless, someone said, at 9:33 pm on January the 12 (two dates ago):
Well, Parler ended because Amazon stopped hosting them and now they can’t find an alternate web host. So much for alternatives, alas. The cancel culture is just getting warmed up for 2021.}
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https://apple.news/ANSxU_UlKQCKSCv_RX-1Q2g
Michael Flynn stood in front of a cheering crowd of QAnon believers, far-right extremists and other Trump supporters, and told them he was absolutely certain Donald Trump would remain the president. It was Dec. 12 and Trump had already lost the election, but at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., Flynn proclaimed “a spiritual battle for the heart and soul of this country” that would end with Trump’s victory.
….
……..
…. The December rally was part of a string of speeches and media appearances, leading up to the January insurrection, in which Flynn lent his voice to the authoritarian movement to keep Trump in office.
…..
……
QAnon believers and far-right militias came to believe that Flynn would help them take control. Days after the Dec. 12 rally, the Three Percenters militia threatened action to overturn the election results. “We are ready to enter into battle with General Flynn leading the charge,” one of the largest Three Percenters groups said in a statement on Dec. 16. Multiple Three Percenters would later be charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including a 48-year-old man who allegedly threatened to kill his family if they contacted law enforcement.
Even as Flynn became a symbolic military leader for these extremists, he retained close ties to the president. After his brief stint as national security adviser ended in disgrace, Trump reportedly floated naming him chief of staff or FBI director and hosted him in the Oval Office.
And when Trump pardoned Flynn late last year, he set the former general loose to indulge in QAnon fanfare and promote the same falsehoods that insurrectionists took to the Capitol building.
Descent Into QAnon
Flynn lasted only three weeks as national security adviser before he was forced to resign over his communications with Russia’s ambassador, and less than a year later he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. {Not only that, Donald Trump had already said to the public that Flynn had lied about his communications with Russia.}
After initially agreeing to help prosecutors, Flynn in December 2018 hired Sidney Powell, soon to be infamous nationwide for her wild election theories, to handle his case.
{And there’s more, including raking in money to pay legal bills, sex and progeny with space aliens, and reneging on a bet.}
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That has been talked about for a long time. Years ago when I trained Real estate agents HUD put out a list of words and terms that are not acceptable, last I checked it was ok to use, but if it offends someone they can still file a complaint. Happy New Year
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Happy new year to you too, Alice.
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Oh my goodness! Now I KNOW that the world has tipped into possibly irrevocable stupidity. I’ll continue to say “Master Bedroom” thanks. Even though no ‘master’ lives in my house. “Mistress Bedroom just sounds so suggestive! 😉
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LOL!😂
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“Mistress Bedroom” connotes leather, whips, high heeled boots, and chains to me. 😏
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I remember watched an episode of “Masters of Flip” and Kortney wanted to have black and white tile in front of the vanities that spelled something. She and her design assistant actually had this conversation over the fact that they couldn’t use HIS AND HERS because it might be a single person buying it.
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Let’s be fair though, it IS tacky regardless of the user’s relationship status.
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Or maybe a “his and his” or a “hers and hers”!
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I wonder if they’ve changed the name of that show, or ended the show? But maybe that’s a use more like The Masters Tournament.
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Real Estate Brokers have been phasing out that term for many years but it seems listing services are now jumping on the bandwago. I understand “master” to be the owner of the home but I can also understand the negative connotations behind the term. What I don’t agree with is anyone expressing this as a result of recent racist tension, which is the narrative I’ve read lately.
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Someone else drew that connection and that interpretation never really occurred to me, but I guess I can understand it.
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It has the idea that the mistress is an appendage and without ownership!?
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Yeah, I suppose one could interpret it that way.
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What about the master copy (to photocopy something)? Is it offensive to the little photocopied clones?
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😂 Well, I suppose one can say “original” as opposed to “master copy.”
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😖Derrrrrrrrr SMH lol
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Haha! We never noticed these things in the “older” days. Now everything has to be pc
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Perhaps not so much sexist as racist? Think back to the days of plantations … slaves and masters? Nothing wrong with calling it the main bedroom. In our house, it’s called “Grannie’s room’! 😉
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A few people have mentioned that and I suppose, from my perspective as a white male, I never previously had given thought to the master-slave connotation. But yes, I can see how it might be considered racist as well as sexist.
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Thank you for listening and thinking … far too many people don’t do that these days.
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I don’t imagine in previous years it wouldn’t be known as a master bedroom even if the owners were black (or people of color). It’s more likely patriarchal. Interestingly in Britain, slavery was legally abolished by a parliamentary act in 1833. But it wasn’t until 1882 when an act was passed to allow married women to own property in their own right. Before this, the master of the house had full control, even over any property inherited from the woman’s side.
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