# What do you mean, "sir"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353 "2005-08-24T00:14:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/1 "2005-08-24T00:14:19Z")
I’m working in the computer lab. Obviously not very hard, but that’s not the point. I start my quarter-hour walk to push in chairs, tidy up, and see if anyone needs help. Walking by an aisle that doesn’t need my attention, I hear a girl say, “Excuse me, sir.” I’m not the only lab monitor here. There is a guy working here, but he’s way over by the printers so she couldn’t possibly mean him. I sigh and go to help the girl. “What do you need?” I ask her. Her mouth literally drops open when she hears my unmistakably feminine voice. Heh. Granted, I have very short hair and not the most womanly of figures, and am dressed in loose t-shirt and baggy shorts. I should be lucky, I suppose, that this is only the second time this has happened to me. Has this happened to anyone else here? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/2 "2005-08-24T00:33:35Z")
Just the opposite: years ago, people used to refer to me as “Miss” on the phone. I didn’t think my voice sounded particularly female, but it happened often enough that it must have seemed that way to someone. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/3 "2005-08-24T00:35:40Z")
When I’m on the phones at work, I get called “ma’am” about 30% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/4 "2005-08-24T00:37:18Z")
OK, now I feel silly for having mentioned my “unmistakably feminine” voice. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/5 "2005-08-24T00:43:55Z")
No one has ever mistaken my gender. It probably hemps to have a deep masculine voice and a beard. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/6 "2005-08-24T00:53:13Z")
Ooo, yeah. Once, when I was 11. Short hair as well. I wasn’t even dressed ambiguously; I think I had on a pink shirt and turquoise shorts or something. Anyway, I was at a park and some kid came right up to me and asked, “Are you a girl or a boy?” :mad: In my defense, his brother came up behind him and said, “She’s a girl, stupid,” and dragged him away. I might still be androgynous when bundled up on my bike in the fall with my hair tucked under my helmet, but I have some serious boobage that guarantees that nobody will wonder about my gender if they see me from the front. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/7 "2005-08-24T00:55:31Z")
I get it sometimes, but I have a fairly low voice for a girl. Also, I’m a kind of butch lesbian, so… Girls with baggy clothes and short hair get it a lot, irrespective of vocal pitch, though. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/8 "2005-08-24T01:01:53Z")
Hasn’t happened to me, which surprises me a little, I have kind of a dorky voice… a la Willow Rosenberg. (When I am at my thinnest, I get mistaken for her all the damn time (until one gets closer), which is an irritation of another sort for another day!) My husband says it’s feminine, but I don’t know. Sometimes it sounds like a teenage boy, to me. My husband, however, regularly calls women “sir”, and at the weirdest times! At one of the doctors’ offices, we were speaking to the secretary - a bright, pretty, blond lady, about my age, with beautiful eyes, long hair, the prettiest smile, big, un-missable _bosooms_ (ah-ooga!), who handed us a sheet with pretty, well manicured, light pink painted nails. She had a very feminine voice. When we finished up, my husband glances at her and says, “Thank you very much, sir.” He turns to me, and I’m of course, a mess: frumpy clothes, limp, lifeless hair, colour just barely coming back, dark circles under my eyes, British grin - and frankly, I think I smelled a little (this was the morning I had to be rushed to the hospital when I had the gallbladder attack, and I hadn’t gotten more than an hour’s sleep and no time to take a shower, and it was a hot day and my clothes were too heavy - why do emergencies _always_ happen on these type of days??) So he takes one look at me and puts his arm around me and says “Let’s go, babe.” I don’t think I’ve told him how much I love him lately. I think I’ll give him a call at work now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/9 "2005-08-24T01:02:19Z")
Once, back in the mid '70s. Our roommate’s parents took us out to a very fancy restaurant, I was wearing a dark sweater, no makeup, my long hair was tied back (and it was a period when a lot of men still had long, long hair). You’d think the server would have noticed the boobage… ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/10 "2005-08-24T01:03:30Z")
I was once mistaken for a girl in the 3rd grade. I had kinda long hair, and that’s sorta the gender marker for kids that young. I got a haircut right away. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/11 "2005-08-24T01:11:23Z")
I don’t get mistaken for a guy, but I do get mistaken (on the phone) for my mom. I’m still not sure which is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/12 "2005-08-24T01:21:08Z")
And then there was the male reporter with the high voice who once asked Tallulah Bankhead, “Tell me Miss Bankhead, have you ever been mistaken for a man on the telephone?” Tallulah replied, “No dahling, have you?” ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/13 "2005-08-24T01:28:18Z")
One time in high school, one of the school nurses had to ask me … it was a bit disconcerting, especailly since I had hair down to my ass and what I consider a pretty femine face… \ my father has a very soft voice because of his Parkinson’s disease, so he gets mistaken for a woman on the phone a lot … my SO has long hair and wide womanly hips, so it wasn’t much of a suprise when a little boy came up to him one day and asked him if he were a boy or a girl… and my favorite mistaken gender story … I have a male friend with long blonde hair and a very slim figure. He gets a lot of whistles from guys when his back is turned, but the moment they see his face (and his very looooong beard)… ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/14 "2005-08-24T01:30:09Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > No one has ever mistaken my gender. It probably hemps to have a deep masculine voice and a beard. Soooo, which are you? Male or female? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/15 "2005-08-24T01:31:19Z")
In person, never, not even when I had super short hair. Wearing baggy clothes just makes me look like a woman who doesn’t know her correct clothing size. On the phone, when I was younger, I was called ‘sir’ a couple of times though. My voice must have changed since it hasn’t happened in ages. ---
**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/16 "2005-08-24T01:38:23Z")
I get mistaken for a girl quite often. I have longish hair, but it’s not down to my shoulders, and I don’t have boobs, so I really don’t get why. I once got mistaken for a girl twice in one visit to Bath and Body Works with my girlfriend (and her folks). That was cause for a lot of laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/17 "2005-08-24T01:44:36Z")
No one has ever mistaken my gender, but my friend’s teacher _repeatedly_ mistook her for male. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/18 "2005-08-24T01:52:57Z")
I was at Mass one day. I apparently impressed the visiting priest with my piety because after Mass he came up to me and asked if I ever considered the priesthood as a vocation. He was a bit taken aback when I told him my gender would be a problem. I’m 5’1" and definitely built like a woman, although I was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt that day. StG ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/19 "2005-08-24T02:00:04Z")
I get it all the time on the phone or at drive-thru speakers, but never in person. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353/20 "2005-08-24T02:03:24Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > I don’t get mistaken for a guy, but I do get mistaken (on the phone) for my mom. I’m still not sure which is worse. You think that’s bad? **I** get mistaken for my mom on the phone when I’m visiting. By RELATIVES! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-mean-sir/318353.md?page=2)