Really? Using the word “ma’am” is now verboten simply because I’m oppressing you because you’re not ready to accept that we all age with the passage of time? That you can even get upset by our perception of you EVEN AS we’re trying to be nice, show manners, and be polite?
Gosh, I remember the first time I was called “sir”. You know what my reaction was? Simple: quick little eyebrow raise – “I’m surprised it took this long”. And the grace to accept that someone had been taught some manners.
The post that spurred this edition was here (yes, I do read CNN from time to time) – I just had to see why “ma’am” is now offensive. Mom would have been horrified if I failed to use that honorific when called for. Now, I’m now the one that could be called “offensive”???
For quick background, some snippets for my Snippet:
How ‘ma’am’ went from being a respectful word for some — but polarizing for others
…I was completely unaware of how much women were outraged by this word until it started getting directed at me as I hit my mid-20s. Like the first time you aren’t carded at the bar, I remember being called “ma’am” by a waiter and realizing, “Yes, he is talking to me.” As someone from Seattle, this term sounded foreign and out of place. It was like society had decided without my permission that my youth was behind me.
…It’s an identity shift when you realize people look at you and no longer see a young person.
…When I hear “ma’am,” I feel my youthful privileges slipping away — like the assumptions that you’re interesting, open-minded and up-to-date
…”It rattled me the first time I was called ma’am,” one 23-year-old shared on Reddit. “I thought I wasn’t quite old enough for that yet.”
…”Ma’am” is generally considered to be a polite term to address a woman, but depending on the region or context, it can mean the exact opposite.
and this next part is the stupidest of all:
…”You can’t control how people see you, but you have a right to assert how you’d like to be seen,” said Wright, who notes that she is trying to use the word less after discovering many hear it as offensive and not inclusive. “The only way these things move forward is through constant reassertion.”
Are you thinking of “preferred pronouns” and the associated demands to control YOUR speech to make THEM feel better about how they are perceived?
Yeah, that. Go read the rest and laugh. We all get old and unless a medical breakthrough happens, that isn’t going to change. Do say other is to deny reality – to yourself.
