(no subject)

[nonethefewer]

Some days, pesky shit irritates me.

Today, it's calling superior officers "sir", regardless of gender.

"But it's a good gender-neutral term to indicate respect towards your superior!"
"It's a gender-inherent term, you ignorant fuck."
"..."

Note: not a real conversation.  Despite my rants here, I try not to get violent during feminism-topicked discussions.

So today, default words (like "sir", or "gentlemen" (I've been reading military fic, shut up), or the like) that claim to be gender-neutral but oddly always seem to be male irritate me beyond reason.

Comments

[antayla.livejournal.com]

That's fine, us girls can start calling all superior officers "Ma'am." (Or even the more formal "Madam.") We see how respected they feel THEN.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Or Dame. Apparently if a woman is knighted, that's the appropriate form of address for her.

[rhya.livejournal.com]

I've always really liked Dame. Dame Dindrane from Arthurian legends...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dindrane