Who Says Status is Dead?

How to Stand Out in a Crowd It just so happens that I was booking up a flight for my summer holiday yesterday. I’m not surprised to be asked to give a ‘Title’, amongst the requests for credit card numbers and so on. But I was surprised by the range of titles available.

To judge from the titles listed by Virgin Atlantic I’m expecting to be flying in what might well resemble a medieval court which has travelled through time.

For the titles I am offered by Virgin Atlantic, beyond the normal Mr, Mrs, Ms, etc, includes the following: Baron, Baroness, Sir, Lady, Lord, Count and Countess.

Remind me, what year are we living in?

These titles are a good example of status - or social prestige. Even plain old Mr is a status, as it is given to adults, and its’ very normality marks one out as someone with a relatively low status - how much better to be a Baron or a Lord! Can society do without status? Why can’t we just use names? On this blog, I appear simply as ‘David Abbott’. Suits me!

But elsewhere in our society, the race to gain status and position in a hierarchy never ceases.

Why not see if you can find other examples like that of Virgin Atlantic and do a little bit of investigating as to what status positions are available in British society and what has to be done to gain these honours.

Seeing as Lords have been mentioned, start out at the House of Lords.