Yes, if Derek Morgan, aka Shemar Moore, called me “baby girl” I would totally melt, but when the drive-thru person at McDonald’s, the clerk at the shoe store or the waiter/waitress at a restaurant (this does not include Heather, the wonderful waitress at Dale’s in Beech Grove, she serves our networking groups every week!) call me these names, I find it disrespectful and quite frankly, I’d rather be called ma’am! I used to just ignore it, but it has become more and more prevelant and, maybe it’s my age, but I’m calling them out on it. I will actually interrupt them and say “I’m sorry, you must be mistaken, I’m not your sweetie and I find your overly familiar endearment disrespectful and I would appreciate it if you would refrain from using it. Should you feel the need to call me something, ma’am is fine.” The reactions have been between very contrite to a flippant “sorry”, but I believe it speaks to the “casualization” of our culture.
This casualization extends from our interactions with one another in person, online line or on the phone to the way we dress. People are not respectful of each other, or themselves, we prefer to spend time with our smartphones or tablets, ever noticed when you are out to dinner or even shopping how many people are interacting with the phones, but not each other? It’s going to be interesting to see where we go from here…thoughts?
Living in Indy 