I'm not sure if it's referenced in the movies or any of the books, but why are the female officers called sir? I'm sure other current or former military out there have the same reaction I have when I hear it.

 

If the Star Wars culture is to be gender neutral, other references should change as well. King Amidala, Prince Leia Organa and so on.

Trannies. must be a tranny.

It's the military in a movie, show or game. 'Sir' seems to always be the proper term in media. I just notch it up to another example of this being a fictional universe.

It's extremely common in SF to do so. Has been for a long long time (think original Star Trek for TV, and long before that in print. I think some of the rebels referred to Leia as sir while on Hoth, pointedly ignoring the worshipfulness title...)

Well, with a post like this, surely Bioware has run out of things to fix as the game is clearly near perfect.

 

I get it... I noticed it... didn't care, figured it went along with everyone having an english accent.

There's a lore object on Ord Mantell that explains, atleast for the republic side, that due to the vast diversity within the republic military, it's been decided that you should always address your superiors as "Sir".

I'm not sure if it's referenced in the movies or any of the books, but why are the female officers called sir? I'm sure other current or former military out there have the same reaction I have when I hear it.

 

If the Star Wars culture is to be gender neutral, other references should change as well. King Amidala, Prince Leia Organa and so on.

 

I am prior military, I don't mind it and I had no reaction to it either. I also am an old Star Wars fan and know it's just Star Wars lingo for military personnel in charge. As for King and Queen titles, those are world dependents and don't particularly have an impact on the Military. Can't change something that's been pretty constant for 43 years...and yes it was slated in 71' and not released until May of 77, but still regardless...that's a long time and I doubt any of the Hard Core Star Wars fans would care for the change of title due to a gender issue, or due to some people not able to see that Sir is used as a Title. It's not a poke at gender it's just how the military culture is in this Universe (Star Wars Universe).

Edited January 14, 2012 by Enodia

In a world where your immediate superior's gender might not be readily apparent or even existant, "sir" is a used a catch-all so nobody gets butthurt when you call them the wrong thing.

Could be that when those voices were recorded, it wasn't decided if they were addressing an XX or XY recipient. All those voices were probably recorded at different times because they don't really sound like an actual conversation, they sound like different sentences that were spliced together to sound like people talking (basicly, think of it as a female VA being recorded on a monday, tuesday, and thursday but the male VA didn't show up for recording until wensday, friday, and the following monday...basicly the two VA may have never actually meet face to face).

The same reason my Sith is called "lord" instead of Lady.

 

It's a man's world.

It's a naval tradition also to address female and male officers by "Mr. " and then their last name.

I believe there are real life militaries where officers are addressed as Sir regardless of their gender.

 

(There's also at least one female Sith Lord who calls herself Lady)

Pause for the moment and consider how much time and hard drive space would be required to have an alternate version of every single spoken sentence which contains the word "sir" and "lord" where those words are replaced with "ma'am" and "lady".

It could be the fact that they are not really speaking English and therefore the equivalent to our "sir" or "ma'am" is something that is gender neutral. This isn't our universe.

 

As for female Sith being called "Lord", I think its just a translation of the Darth title into galactic basic. It's probably gender neutral as well.

@ Brandonspikes- suddenly i'm afraid to hit the flirt button (jk)

@ Polebreaker- worshipfulness should be an actual title (jk)

@ Pyromanen- thanks, I'll see if I can wiki it or something. I may have missed it when I was doing the quests

@ everyone else- thanks for the thoughts and insight, may never know the real answer, but it may have been intentional and not just an oversight

 

@ Relai- I do believe you may have found the true answer, right In front of everyone's faces..... It is a mans world. Well done. *applause* (Just kidding )

Edited January 18, 2012 by Foolbee

I believe there are real life militaries where officers are addressed as Sir regardless of their gender.

 

(There's also at least one female Sith Lord who calls herself Lady)

 

This. Using "Sir" is a completely appropriate term for the US Navy at the very least. Every once in a while a female officer will get a hair up her butt and yell at you for it, but there's really nothing she can do about it. Sir is the basic honorific, denoting your defference/acceptance of a superior officer. Essentially it is the same as addressing an officer by rank, such as Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain etc. , but in short hand.

I haven't run into anyone calling a ma'am, a sir I the navy, but then again I'm a dirt sailor, never been on a ship. I've had pretty limited contact with Airedales and fleeters. Edited January 18, 2012 by Foolbee

@ Brandonspikes- suddenly i'm afraid to hit the flirt button

@ Polebreaker- worshipfulness should be an actual title

@ Pyromanen- thanks, I'll see if I can wiki it or something. I may have missed it when I was doing the quests

@ everyone else- thanks for the thoughts and insight, may never know the real answer, but it may have been intentional and not just an oversight

 

@ Relai- I do believe you may have found the true answer, right In front of everyone's faces..... It is a mans world. Well done. *applause*

 

To the thread starter: Why bother to ask the community if you've already made your mind up? Unless you were just trying to get people to give you an answer to your liking, your post may very well be seen as trolling and or trying to stir trouble in the community. If you were seriously looking for an answer, there are plenty of answers in the thread and then real life equivalents. If you were looking for a " BIOWARE is SEXIST" answer you probably should go play another game because it's obvious you don't care enough to educate yourself on Star Wars history or lore.

I started the thread, because I was curious if there was any lore attached to it. Apologies if my comment was written in away to suggest I had already made up my mind. I also attached some very sarcastic comments, because I appreciated the humor, not necessarily agreed with it. I will try to emphasize my sarcasm better in the future.

 

And yes I appreciated your comment, and unless I mis-read it, your suggesting it's been that way since the beginning. It may have been just a fact of life courtesy, therefore no explanation has been needed or given.

 

Also, I again was being sarcastic in suggesting the queen/princess titles should be changed. I was using it as an illustration, nothing more.

 

Just to clarify, I am not at all bothered by, female officers being called sir, it just sounds odd when I hear it. I also have no problem at all with women in leadership roles, as they can be very capable. I have had several Chiefs, Senior Chiefs and Master Chiefs that I have the upmost respect for and have enjoyed working with.

Lots of military's called female officers sir for a while, female officers werent called ma'am until like the 90s in US military. Edited January 18, 2012 by Bobinator