I Get Called "Sir."

[Persephone]

I was out for dinner with a bunch of my GG friends and we were chatting about miscellaneous stuff.

I was talking about one of my cousins, how he was a very lovely man, and just happened to mention that he had been bothered all his life by having a high pitched voice and always getting called "Ma'm" on the phone.

One of the women in the group said, "Well, I always get called 'Sir' and I don't like it either!"

I'd never even thought of her voice as particularly deep or gravelly but now, after her comment, I can see how such a thing could happen.

Makes me feel at least a teensy bit better when I get called "Sir" on the phone.

Hugs,
Persephone.

[Wildaboutheels]

Your post is a good example of why I think it is always wise to give the benefit of the doubt to folks when they "insult" us for any reason whatsoever. I notice many here can find a way to turn almost any encounter into something negative. Chances are excellent that very few folks out in the RW will go out of their way to insult someone or simply try to engage in conversation merely to "bust" someone's chops.

[Leah Lynn]

I was having pizza and a drink with a couple other girls, when our waitress, who had been exemplary up to this point, asked, "How's it going guys?" A bit miffed, but saying nothing about it, I soon saw her at a table of GG's, asking the very same question. Okay, EVERYONE is "Guys"! And suddenly, everything was again perfect in our girl world.

Leah

[tiffanyjo89]

Yeah, I think the "How's it going guys?" is a little weird when it's all girls, but I can let that slide very easily.

But as for the OP (and Leah's post as well), I definitely do think it's part of a general laziness on behalf of people on the phone. People hear a higher pitched, possibly somewhat soft voice and immediately have to think "WOMAN!" and hear a lower pitched, possibly somewhat rough voice and think "MAN!" Heck, I just looked Jackson by Johnny Cash and June Carter, and then A Thousand Miles From Nowhere by Dwight Yoakam and think that Dwight and June's voices have a similar sounding range in the two songs, and maybe June's voice is actually deeper on the low end.

[kimdl93]

I suppose any woman would be a bit offended by being called sir. For a transgendered person, particularly one of my stature, it goes with the territory. But I confess that I feel a bit more confident after the occasional ma'am, and that confidence still deflates a bit when I get a 'sir'.

[Beverley Sims]

I think it is a bit generic these days.
After serving six sirs I get a drop dead gorgeous blonde, "can I help you sir?"
Mmm! you make a very attractive lady and then I go on.
"Okay guys what will it be?" is definitely a generic term, so don't lose sleep over the pedantics.
Six aggressive attractive girls in a group are harder to tackle than four males anyway. :)

[Kali]

My wife, who is very feminine in appearance, has a low pitched voice and often gets called "Sir" on the phone. What's even worse is that her name is Roberta, so she often gets calls looking for "Robert" from people who call her sir when she tries to explain they dropped the "A".

Never happens in real life, though ;)

[Kate Simmons]

I'm guessing it would be a pretty dull world without gender Hon.:)