Think Piece, Think Please: On Being Called "Miss" Tellie
Is it just me or does anyone else inwardly cringe when commenters call them Miss?
Miss Liz, Miss Helga, Miss Martha, Miss Shari...
Miss Tellie?
*shivers*
I often wonder why some people feel the need to add a Miss. Even if I drop enough F-bombs in this blog to officially excommunicate me from the realm polite conversation.
Even if I'm only my mid-twenties - that's frikkin young!!!
I know it's a sign of respect and there should be absolutely no way to take it negatively. In fact, there is such "no way"-ness that the number of "ways" veers into a negative value. I don't really hate it.
Yet still...
Yet still...
 |
| Miss Tellie.... |
I know it's a sign of deference. In our terribly non-confrontational society, people are averse to using another's given name.
The first name is within the realm of the private and the personal.
Polite conversation dictates that only 'special' people get to first name-basis, and you can't be that brazen, you cocky little shit!
We feel terribly presumptuous and "feeling close" calling people by just their first names.
Show of hands: how many of you gasp when American children call their parents by their first name? One would assume a collectivistic society such as ours would be all hugs and meshing and blending, but not really.
Show of hands: how many of you gasp when American children call their parents by their first name? One would assume a collectivistic society such as ours would be all hugs and meshing and blending, but not really.
We are quite fixated with our spaces, places and distances.
I guess it all comes back to a great fear of overstepping our boundaries.
I feel like some readers need that Miss or Ma'am (I'M A MA'AM?!) to create the distance they recognize between myself and them. My readers are obviously aware they're not my friends-friends. Though I talk openly and engage in friendly discussion, we never meet nor hang out in real life except for a few I bump into during events and fairs. Even so, I don't consider myself 'apart' from people so just call me Tellie, please!
And honestly, Tellie is a pretty baby, cutesy nickname, so I understand why you wouldn't want to get close to that. Even I cringe when I hear it. I hate this nickname, seriously. But it's stuck so well and I never had the heart to tell bloggers that nobody really called me Tellie until I baptized myself with it for the blog. Long story short: tried to be anonymous at first. Ha, what a joke!
THIS IS MY PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR CHOOSING SUCH A HORRIBLE STAGE NICKNAME. Sorry, world. And also, nobody needs to call me Miss!
For more Think Pieces, click here.
THIS IS MY PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR CHOOSING SUCH A HORRIBLE STAGE NICKNAME. Sorry, world. And also, nobody needs to call me Miss!
For more Think Pieces, click here.