Boxer: 'Call Me Senator [not] Ma'am'

California Sen. Barbara Boxer is getting some attention after a contentious congressional hearing that centered on her frustration with how Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh addressed her.

Walsh with the Army Corps of Engineers had addressed male senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee as "sir" during the Tuesday hearing. When the time came to speak with Boxer, the panel's chairwoman, he called her "ma'am."

When the general addressed Boxer as "Ma’am," she stopped him and pointedly said, "Do me a favor, could you call me senator instead of ma'am? It's just a thing, I've worked so hard to get that title, I’d appreciate it. Thank you."

"Yes, senator," the general responded.

A Boxer aide says the senator did refer to Walsh as "general" several times during the hearing.

The Washington Times reported that the exchange "marked a deep clash in cultural understandings of appropriate address and respect. Some feminists consider the term "ma'am" patronizing; in the military, it is seen as an honorific."

Arizona Sen. John McCain poked fun at the exchange in an interview on FOX News' Thursday night. "Thank you for calling me 'Senator' and not 'sir,'" McCain said with a smile as he began his interview.

Watch the exchange between Boxer and Walsh: