All's I remember's an "Excuse me, miss". You can't get a girl like me with a line like this.

[raysimoto]

Time for an informal poll for the ladies out there

Comments

[throwdownartist]

This has bothered me forever. Usually I try to say "excuse me," (e.g., "Excuse me, you dropped your receipt."), but sometimes you need a direct form of address. I usually revert to "Ma'am," because "Miss" seems overly diminutive to my ear, but I wish there was a third option.

[kev_bot]

Does "Miz" count? I'm being serious here - wasn't there a push for this pronunciation in the 60s and 70s?

[raysimoto]

"Ms" was introduced as a title, but not necessarily something you'd call someone. Like, you'd address a letter to "Ms. vdS", but you wouldn't say "Hello, Miz!" Unless you were talking to reality TV star "The Miz". Then, all bets are off.

[kev_bot]

I want The Miz to star in a remake of The Wiz, brought to you, of course, by Alka-Seltzer.

[vlvtjones]

I am way to old to be a "Miss". I don't mind "Ma'am", but I absolutely HATE "Lady", as in a mother warning her spastic toddler, "Watch out for the Lady, Ashley." I couldn't tell you why, but that just irks the hell out of me.

In all honesty, one can just tap my shoulder or catch my eye and say "excuse me", and thereby make it gender neutral.

[perich]

I default to "ma'am," but I offered to help a little old lady lift a cart of groceries onto the curb on Friday by asking, "Miss?" Which I realized at the time was odd.

[knowthyself]

I'm not a fan of 'ma'am', but I know there's really no getting around it.

[manley1]

I usually just address women as "ma'am" because it's just simpler and separates women from girls ("miss").

[raysimoto]

So how do you decide who's a woman and who's a girl?