The Makcik or Auntie Dilemma
Which one do you prefer being called: makcik or auntie ? More interestingly, when do you decide to call someone makcik , and when do you instinctively switch to auntie ? Most of us have never consciously made this decision, but it comes naturally, kan? Almost as if there are certain markers and attributes to who is deserving of being called makcik or auntie. As though the two words have always belonged to different kinds of women. The reality, however, is that our vocabulary often reveals social assumptions we do not even realise we hold. Think about the women you address every day. The woman selling kuih by the roadside is almost always makcik . The cleaner wiping tables at the food court is makcik . The school canteen operator, the mak cik who waters the plants outside your office, the elderly migrant woman selling vegetables at the pasar pagi, all comfortably fit within the category of makcik . Yet the woman who lives in your mother's neighbourhood, her friend from th...
