A long time ago, back in the heyday of womens lib, I once said yes ma'am to an equally aged Yankee female. She went all red faced on me explaining that where she came from that was considered a high form of disrespect to a woman. I tried to explain that where I was from, the deep south and where we were now standing, that we were taught to use yes ma'am as a sign of our deep respect for the female gender. She just went on and on with her rant until I told her, "OK. From now on when I answer in the affirmative, I'll just say 'uh huh bitch'". I don't know why but she liked that even less. You just can't satisfy dem dam wommins libbers.