Southern "Hospitality" Revisited

OK, I've had a chance to cool down since my last post, but it's still an issue. I've come up with a few solutions.

1) Calmly correct people for calling me ma'am

2) Irately correct people for calling me ma'am

3) Don't give business to establishments where employees call me ma'am

4) Learn to ignore the problem

5) Change people so they no longer call me ma'am

The problem is either implementing these solutions or the unintended ramifications

1) Generally, when a person calls me ma'am, it is the first time I have met them. That means that even if I manage to get them to change, it's a moot point. The next person I run into will have not yet been corrected, but rather will go ahead and call me ma'am. It may help me though, feeling as though I'm being somewhat proactive in solving the problem.

2) Same advantages and disadvantages as 1, but I get to unleash some anger. Disadvantage: I don't have that much pent up anger, although this issue tends to stir up a lot.

3) This is an interesting one. It has the major advantage that if I, say, call to set up an appointment to get my oil changed and the guy calls me ma'am, I can correct him and then take my business elsewhere. The guy now knows not to make that mistake again, and has a real dollar consequence of his actions. The downside: now to follow through with it, I need to avoid patronizing the only auto shop in town where the worker knows not to call someone ma'am implicitly.

4) This is the most zen option. Just let them make their mistake. Unfortunately, I can't imagine anyone who can take insults like this continuously without letting it turn them into a serial killer or something.

5) OK this is the solution. I just need to find a way to change people's behavior prior to meeting them. Easy, right? Hmm... Maybe a public ad campaign to make people aware of my pet peeves?

Anyway. That's the moral of my story. Please don't address me as ma'am.