Reply to Colorado State: don't use American

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Colorado State: don't use American"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a practical question.

Scenario.  I am in the grocery store.  The person (who appears to be a female to me) in front of me drops a dollar bill.  Before I saw this list, I would say "Ma'am, you just dropped this dollar bill."  So now am I supposed to say "Person, you just dropped this dollar bill."

Because even though the person looks like a female to me, I'm supposed to use inclusive language and if I don't I'm considered non-inclusive?[/quote]

Ma’am is terrible anyway. I get offended by it because I am only in my early 30s!  But I also get offended by “miss” because I am a grown ass adult.  So just stop saying it because it’s weird. [/quote]

+1.  Ma'am if faux polite at best, and more typically snide--basically comes off as [i]you're old and in my way[/i].[/quote]

The irony is that "ma'am" is apparently included on the list to avoid offending the wrong person but you've just showed that the people who are ostensibly offended by the term are far more offensive than anyone using the term..... [/quote]

Have you been called ma'am?  I don't use it to address anyone, so I'm not revealing myself.  No matter how politely you use the term, I promise you there are people who use it with the intent to offend.  Since it's only used with strangers, you might at least consider that when you do use it, you can be misconstrued.[/quote]

You haven't explained why it would be misconstrued to refer to someone as ma'am. It's a *polite* way to refer to a person. Why is it a big deal? Is it sexist? Just like calling a man "sir"? Military uses sir/ma'am all the time. Is that wrong? Or bad?

There are people out there who are offended for every possible thing out there. So why is this singled out? We would have to ban the entirety of the English language in order to avoid offending everyone over everything.

At the end of the day, some of you are forgetting that what *you* think is not important. Because *you* are not important. There is no evidence whatsoever that "ma'am" is considered offensive or used as an offensive or derogatory term in the larger society, and that is what is important. Demanding that everyone stop using "ma'am" just to make a few people happy is wholly silly and ignorant.

Ask yourself: why are your views more important than other people's views. What justifies you thinking your views are widely shared? Based on what assumptions? But you really can't, can you? It's all imaginary in your head to think these things. IT's the reflection of the inherent selfishness of our times that people are so self-absorbed to think only of their own feelings and ideas, no matter how badly based or misjudged they may be, and that it must triumph over other people.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics