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Adressing female officers

Set in the Starfire strategy game universe, co-authored by David and Steve White, these novels feature the clash of the Terran Federation, the cat-like Orions, the genocidal Rigelians, and the "Bugs"...join us in the discussion!
Adressing female officers
Post by olli01a   » Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:08 pm

olli01a
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Hi,

I like the Starfire series very much and I just started to listen to the audiobooks. I‘m now well into In Death Ground and something occured to me: Why female officers are adressed as Sir and not as Ma‘am?

English is not my first language and maybe this is something I don‘t know or don‘t grasp about the english language. I hope someone can explain this to me.

Thanks,
Olli
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Re: Adressing female officers
Post by Weird Harold   » Wed Sep 05, 2018 6:51 am

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olli01a wrote:... Why female officers are adressed as Sir and not as Ma‘am?


That is common to a lot of Science Fiction. It can be seen as a logical progression of political correct speech that stresses gender neutrality, or it can be seen as a simple evolution of language.
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Answers! I got lots of answers!

(Now if I could just find the right questions.)
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Re: Adressing female officers
Post by George J. Smith   » Thu Sep 06, 2018 8:37 am

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Strange how MWW aka rfc chooses to use different honorifics in the various series.
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T&R
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A man should live forever, or die in the attempt
Spider Robinson Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977) A voice is heard in Ramah
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Re: Adressing female officers
Post by Roguevictory   » Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:09 pm

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George J. Smith wrote:Strange how MWW aka rfc chooses to use different honorifics in the various series.


Maybe it is done intentionally to show the differences between the cultures that the stories focus on?
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Re: Adressing female officers
Post by Generalstarwars333   » Thu Jul 22, 2021 7:41 pm

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I thought I read somewhere that having "sir" as the universal way of referring to officers was just simpler, and in a stressful situation it would eliminate having to think about if you were using the right form of address. Easier to just think, "Officer-->sir" than to think, "Officer-->male or female?-->(correct form of address)".
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