Judith Martin - "Miss Manners"

"Miss Manners"

Since 1978 she has written an advice column, which is distributed three times a week by Universal Uclick and carried in more than 200 newspapers worldwide. In the column, she answers etiquette questions contributed by her readers and writes short essays on problems of manners, or clarifies the essential qualities of politeness.

Judith Martin writes about the ideas and intentions underpinning seemingly simple rules, providing a complex and advanced perspective, which she refers to as "heavy etiquette theory". Her columns, noted for their admonishing tone and sarcasm, as well as their broad knowledge of history and customs and their applications to the problems of today, have been collected in a number of books. In her writings, Martin refers to herself in the third person, e.g. "Miss Manners hopes..."

In a 1995 interview by Virginia Shea, Miss Manners said,

"You can deny all you want that there is etiquette, and a lot of people do in everyday life. But if you behave in a way that offends the people you're trying to deal with, they will stop dealing with you...There are plenty of people who say, 'We don't care about etiquette, but we can't stand the way so-and-so behaves, and we don't want him around!' Etiquette doesn't have the great sanctions that the law has. But the main sanction we do have is in not dealing with these people and isolating them because their behavior is unbearable."