I am a longtime subscriber to The Sun and have noticed a rather distressing trend in your news articles to describe women on the basis of their biological history and age, rather than what they do or are.
Here is an example from your Feb. 13 report on the I-495 bridge overpass incident ("Md. to inspect aging bridges"):
"[Acting Transportation Secretary Pete K.] Rahn apologized to Katherine Dean, the Prince George's County grandmother whose windshield ..."
Now what is the point of using the term grandmother, rather than "woman" or "resident" or even "motorist?" If you were writing about a Kevin instead of a Katherine, would the sentence read "the Prince George's County grandfather?" Very unlikely. The use of the word grandmother conjures up the image of frailty and age, even that one is more likely to be victimized. That the reporters even knew Ms. Dean is a grandmother is in itself odd. Was she asked? And why?
Being a grandmother is fine, of course. I am one myself. But if the chunk of bridge had fallen on my car, I would no more expect to see myself described as such than I would expect you to include that information about the acting transportation secretary or the past president of the civil engineers' society, both of whom were quoted in the article.
Unless a woman's familial status is germane to the story, there is no reason to include it. That sort of writing is best left to the "local rags."
Kathleen Roso, Catonsville