Originally posted by MetteHHH Maybe I'm just being overly Scandinavian here. Or overly female.
I just feel SO puzzled, when forum users in the threads I follow begin adressing each other "sir"! "Well put, sir" "A genuinely brilliant statement, sir" etc. I feel somehow transported to a lounge full of Victorian gentlemen. Is this an American trend in online communication? Is it just that I have frequented less high-society fora up until now?
Anyway, I wonder when someone will resort to calling ME "sir", since my gender might not be apparent to most foreigners based on my name...
Assumptions of gender and double-edged respect aside, ....if no one's pointed this out, in America there is a tradition of 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' as polite address for everyone that goes back a long ways, because we're all free people and citizens. (It's also why the formal title of our head of state is simply 'Mr. President' on George Washington's insistence. ) Despite the origins, it's more like how everyone in a free Japan is your-name-san. Even if that was once reserved for the equestirian class.
(Also Rupert and Alamo point out that Texans think they're the only ones who say 'Sir and Ma'am,' And also seem oblivious to the fact that 'Missy' is insulting, (A way of calling a female a child with implications of being spoiled: as in it's *condescending at best, * as in, 'Listen here, Missy.' ) and 'Miss' doesn't get flattering till you turn 40 or so.
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I should also add that as a police brat from the Northeast, prefacing something with 'Sir' or Ma'am' is also the etiquette if you happen to be carrying a badge or government job of *any* kind, (And this carries over to any public service job, even commercial, often) even if it's like, 'Sir, this is just for our safety, but I'm going to have to ask you to raise your hands slowly and ....yadda yadda.' It's courtesy and professionalism, and once, people realized this was about keeping this a Republic of equals, not some pretense. (That's why in America, the convention is often to say 'Sir or Ma'am' in particularly-contentious circumstances, since this supposedly is a reminder that we're all supposed to be the equals of any 'noble' in a free country. Few know this better than ol' punkers like me, too.
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