Originally Posted by exbayern

I think that why 'ma'am' may hurt my ears is as some say on the BA thread I linked; 'ma'am' is for royalty. So using it is sort of a mockery to others.

That may be a subtlety of language ie where a word means one thing in one country, and something different in another, even when using the same word. Americans wearing their 'fanny' packs may encounter similar in the UK.