Maliciously Ma'am-ed

This autoethnographic essay looks at how honorifics—specifically the word "ma'am"—are often used not as a sign of respect, but as a conversational wall to enforce hierarchy and demand compliance. Drawing on lived experience, the piece explores how dominant Western cultural norms can erase marginalized communication styles, sharing a childhood story of how a familial Algonquian word of respect was replaced by a forced "ma'am." The essay also looks at how a person's natural cognitive pattern recognition gets shut down or labeled as "making assumptions" when it doesn't fit the expected mold.