# You want onions, Sweetie? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 15, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470 "2003-05-15T16:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mske](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mske](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mske)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/1 "2003-05-15T16:44:49Z")
People who may call me “Sweetie”; - My wife - My mother - Grandmothers - My mistress (if I had one) - Little old ladies I help cross the street - Actually, little old ladies in general - Southern Belles - SDMB moderators - Heather Graham People who may **not** call me “Sweetie”; 20-something year old mustached female Subway sandwich “artists” assembling my Roast Chicken on Parmesan Oregano. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/2 "2003-05-15T17:15:06Z")
How do you feel about “Hon”? If that bothers you too, stay out of Baltimore. Seriously. But yeah, I agree. I’d rather be called ma’am than sweetie by a stranger. Then again, I’m an old lady, so I like to think I’m entitled to a little deference. Still, I feel your pain, sweetie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/3 "2003-05-15T17:20:51Z")
This, fortunately - or maybe unfortunately depending on your outlook, is not something with which I’ve ever had to deal. I guess people don’t think of me as sweet. ---
**Author:** ![spinningplates](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7c8e57/32.png) [@spinningplates](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinningplates)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/4 "2003-05-15T17:43:28Z")
But, but, it means I like you! It’s all about the love, sweetie. Maybe it slipped out, like when a fellow student called his professor Mom in lecture once (everybody’s expressions were hilarious). ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/5 "2003-05-15T18:02:14Z")
Heh. Just told this to a friend of mine who works at subway. She laughed and said, “Okay. Next time I’ll just say ‘Would you like onions, motherf\*cker?’” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mske](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mske](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mske)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/6 "2003-05-15T18:46:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spinningplates \* > \*\*Maybe it slipped out, like when a fellow student called his professor Mom in lecture once (everybody’s expressions were hilarious). \*\* Nah - she added “Sweetie” to every single topping question. Plus when she told me how much I owed her, plus when she told me how much my change was, plus every single time she opened her mouth… ---
**Author:** ![guava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71e660/32.png) [@guava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guava)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/7 "2003-05-15T20:37:14Z")
A 20 something woman was calling you sweetie in Mississauga? Very strange. Were you wearing your faded Levi’s and a tight white t-shirt? Did you look at her with a sly grin when you ordered? Did she _look_ like Heather Graham? ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/8 "2003-05-15T20:48:32Z")
Being called “sweetie” or “hon” is par for the course around here. It bothered the heck out of me because in Georgia I would get sweetied but my mom wouldn’t, whereas here if you are female, you get sweetied. So it’s not a problem, even if it DOES get annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/9 "2003-05-15T21:07:00Z")
Some things just strike me funny. ArrrMatey’s quote was one of them. I snorted. I actually snorted. Fortunately, I don’t mind that a bit. I figure sweetie or hon is better than things I could be called, or HAVE been called for that matter… It’s USUALLY a term of endearment, and most people I know who say it don’t have a particular sentiment in mind when they say it…they just say it. I would never say it to someone who is obviously my elder, though. Their place on this planet commands a little more respect than that… I’m just now getting over Ma’am, though. I don’t know when I got old enough for this to happen, but it’s always some twenty something with no social skills that says it. I’m only thirty…gaaaawd. Yes. I know why they do it. You’re supposed to. That’s the way the world works. But it’s taking a while for my ears to accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/10 "2003-05-15T23:06:49Z")
I’d take sweetie to “babe” any day. I get called that around here. Somehow “babe” is more offensive to me, it implies the guy saying it is claiming me as “his”. I don’t go for “ownership” in my marriage. (I don’t own him, he doesn’t own me.) I sure as heck don’t want a stranger “claiming” me. Yeah, yeah, it could be he’s calling me the same as “cutie”. I don’t like that one much either. I guess it’s because sweetie IMO at least, refers to temperment, and the others to sex appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/11 "2003-05-16T00:28:05Z")
Never move to Alabama, then. All us wimmins is named Sweetie, Sugar, Honey, Doll, Baby (never Babe…must remind them of Babe Ruth or something) and other endearing names. That’s just by the men, though. The women can come up with a hundred more. Especially the older ladies. I have heard it all my life, so I really don’t even hear it anymore. I suppose it’s easier than actually remembering anybody’s name. I’m pretty bad about “hon” myself. I have also slipped in a “sugar” now and again, but usually only when talking to my kids’ friends. ---
**Author:** ![Purple\_Scottie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Purple\_Scottie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purple_Scottie)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/12 "2003-05-16T10:29:38Z")
I’m divided on the sweetie/honey/etc. issue. After spending a good amount of time at the VA this year, I’ve realized that many of the older patients really dont’ mean it in a condescending way and as long as it isn’t said in a perverted way, I don’t mind it. I strongly resent, however, when an attending physician or resident with whom I am supposed to have a professional relationship uses such terms. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/13 "2003-05-16T10:57:48Z")
There are parts of the United Kingdom where you have unrivalled opportunities to be addressed as “my lover” by persons of indeterminate gender and indeterminate, but advanced, years. Personally, I’m inclined to put it down as just a verbal tic … not something I’m going to lose any sleep over. YMMV, it’d be a funny old world if we were all the same. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-onions-sweetie/175470/14 "2003-05-16T11:04:29Z")
**Steve** , that reminds me of the time we spent in Bavaria, where we attended an anglican/episcopalian church made up mostly of ex-pats from the UK. It always struck me as funny that they would go stiff as a board when I tried to hug them, but would also think nothing of addressing me as “sweet pet”.