I was a female soldier, and I don’t mind being called ‘Sir’
In Star Trek female officers are given the honorific title of Sir. It is set in an age when we have moved beyond gender issues, when men and women no longer need to use gender association to classify their status. In Britain our Armed Forces are trying to do the same, but have a long way to go to remodel the way we think about gender.
I was rather saddened to see the Army is dropping its longstanding convention of addressing officers over the phone as “Sir”, even if they may unwittingly be introducing themselves to a female officer. In 1997 I started serving in 21 SAS, a Special Forces unit in the British Army. I went on to train as an officer. In 2001 I left my training to start up an expedition…