Is this a new title for transgender and gender neutral people?

There may soon be an officially recognised title for gender neutral people, an alternative to Ms and Mr, and there has been a positive reaction to the move in Australia.

But the new title, spelt Mx and pronounced mux, is a choice that has some people questioning whether it will succeed.

Until now, anyone who does not identify as either male or female has had no gender neutral title to choose from.

“It’s a reminder that people are not feeling validated, and it does cause stress,” executive director of Transgender Victoria, Sally Goldner, said.

“Documentation and forms that don’t match the reality of people’s existence are part of that.”

The assistant editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, Jonathan Dent, told the Sunday Times newspaper the title Mx is under consideration for inclusion in the next edition of the dictionary.

He said it would be the first addition to the accepted stable of honorifics in recent history.

Just last month, Australian Human Rights commissioner Tim Wilson delivered a speech on what he called Australia's transgender awakening, declaring that the most extensive discrimination is faced by transgender Australians.

A third of transgender people identify as neither male nor female, so providing a gender-neutral term would alleviate distress for many people, according to Ms Goldner.

"Sadly, in the past, some people who have felt difficulty in this situation have just used, if I can be a little light hearted, reverend or doctor," she said.

"They've never been queried about it, and it just saves a whole heap of trouble."

Ms Goldner said putting down a gender title which one does not identify with can cause stress and anxiety.

"[The new title] will give flexibility and respect in a lot of ways," she said.

It is good news for the transgender community, but there are questions about whether it will catch on here.

Mx the wrong fit for new title

English is on the right track as it sheds gender discrimination, but we can do better than Mx, according to language expert Emeritus Professor Roland Sussex.

"I think that it's ugly. And whichever way you pronounce it as mix, mux or Mx it's going to sound inept and uncomfortable," he said.

"The trouble is that you want something that is going to sound OK.

"And I'm afraid Mx looks like a half-blown scientific formula or expression of some kind. And mux, it just doesn't sound very nice."

Professor Sussex is not against the idea, but think Mx is the wrong fit.

"I think avoiding terms which are discriminatory, and particularly unnecessarily discriminatory, for gender are worth getting rid of or at least not using the way we used to," he said.

"But in this particular case, I'm looking, well I'm waiting for someone to come up with a neutral and agree-sounding term which people are going to like.

"But with this Mx thing, it seems to me they're backing a bad horse here and it's not going to succeed."

Mx is also the name of a News Corporation publication available for free on trains, and well known to commuters in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which does not sit right with Lisa Sinclair from Genderqueer Australia.

"In an Australian context, Mx is a magazine, so that's immediately problematic," she said.

"As an international idea it might work, but it's going to take a bit more than a gender-neutral pronoun to overcome the very gendered societies we have in the West and around the world.

"Having a gender-neutral pronoun is very nice, but there's much more to having acceptance of gender-neutral people than just a word."

What do you think of Mx? Let us know in the comments.