The Design Brief™ | Volume IV | Why the terms MASTER Bedroom and MASTER Bathroom Have Fallen Out of Favor
If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed the term "Master" has quietly faded out of the interior design industry's vocabulary. A few years ago, HGTV stopped using "master bedroom," "master bathroom," and "master suite" in favor of "primary" or "main." Now, real estate sites like Zillow use "owner's suite" or "primary suite" to describe the largest bedroom in a home.
So why the change? To understand it fully, we need to look at a bit of history. The term "master bedroom" first showed up in 1920s Sears catalogs as a promotional term to describe the largest, most luxurious bedroom in their kit homes. It was really a marketing term, rather than a historical reference.
While it may not have been intended as a reference to anything that could be construed as offensive, the term’s origins actually go back to pre-Civil War plantation life. The "Master" of the estate lived in the grand main house and oversaw every aspect of life on the plantation.
Sensitivity to racial justice and race consciousness came into focus with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy in southern states. Rightfully, scrutiny around the “master” room descriptors surfaced at the same time, and a recognition that this term could be considered insensitive.
Additionally, the word “master” refers to a male head of the household who has a patriarchal domain over the wife and family. Both the racial and the sexist undertones have prompted the change in terminology.
Changes in language are not unusual. Many terms have been exiled from our language to avoid offending people based on their identity or experience. We no longer label housing for the elderly as such, in lieu of senior housing. Over the last several years, our society has reckoned with pronoun use in referring to individuals of the LGBTQ community. The list goes on and on.
Some have criticized the exclusion of the term “master” as being an overly simplistic and masked approach to much more complex issues of housing discrimination. In 2020, musician John Legend pointed out in a tweet that the real problem regarding housing inequities has nothing to do with semantics:
Real problem: Realtors don’t show black people all the properties they qualify for. Fake problem: calling the master bedroom the master bedroom. Fix the problem, Realtors.
There is also the argument that—in higher education—a Master’s degree is still called just that. But the connotation in that context is mastery and authority, not domination.
So, should the interior design community eliminate the terms “master bedroom” and “master bathroom” from client communication and floor plans? While some may say the term was never intended to conjure up negative, racially charged connotations—or even sexist connections, for that matter—there is no reason not to rethink outdated industry jargon and move in favor of controversy-free terms.
Language is powerful, words matter, and we need to be aware of the impact of the words we use. Why wouldn’t we adjust our industry’s nomenclature to avoid any insensitivity? Master implies male-ness, domination, and control, and should simply be avoided. “Primary” or “main” are logical alternatives as they are both simple, neutral, and universally understood.
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