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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2pywjqz:sugarspiceandcursewords
replied to your post “danceswchopstck
replied to your post “oh noooooooo the niece who has…”
Oh, for sure. Been a DoD civilian on a military base for almost 17 years; not once have I heard a female officer called “Sir” except by accident by a mortified baby lieutenant.
Oh, I think you weren’t here yet for the Sir Discourse. It must be, gosh, like a year ago– and don’t let Discourse make it sound worse than it was, it wasn’t like anyone was really super bitter about it or whatever, but–
I guess there was some sci-fi or fantasy TV show or other, or more than one maybe, that had a woman who was a general or commander or whatever, and everyone called her Sir instead of Ma’am, and it was meant to be a gesture of respect I guess– misgendering this woman was, in-universe, taken to be some sign of how Great her authority was.(I am sure that twenty people will send me messages and asks telling me more about this TV show or movie or whatever it was. I really don’t care, it’s cool if you liked it, I didn’t watch it and don’t care to, I’m not super into most entertainment properties, I’m sure they had some elaborate in-universe justification for it. I honestly don’t give a fuck, if I was going to, I’d have been convinced a year ago.)
And so a handful of people– good writers, people with whose worldview there is nothing appreciably wrong– in homage to this series or movie or book or show or whatever it was, due to how great and culturally formative it was– wrote some excellent fics, but in them, General Leia Organa was called “Sir” by various of her subordinates.
I, not familiar with whatever this other media property was, was sort of horrified. Why the fuck would you misgender a woman General? I didn’t understand it.
Clearly, it was intended as a respectful thing, I was informed. Which, fine, I guess I get the intention. Maybe?
But I was really pretty offended, and remain a bit offended– especially because more than one person informed me that to them, “Ma’am” was a sex worker or dominatrix kind of thing. Which, honestly? That’s a problem with you, not with the word. If you can’t imagine using that honorific for anyone in a real-life scenario outside of sex work, you maybe need to work on that.
Because in real life, women have been in command, in real life, and called by their correctly-gendered honorific in English, in real life, for decades. And to erase the thousands of real women, who in real life, are actually in real life in real command of real soldiers in real wars, is hideously offensive to me.
But like. Your movie or TV show or whatever that posits that women have to be misgendered to be respected is cute, and all. Great.
I still have this photo saved on my hard drive from last time. These are the first two women to be promoted to the rank of General of the United States Army. In 1970. Only seven years before A New Hope came out, sure. But. Seven years before the first Star Wars movie and we already in real life had women who were generals. It is absolutely a failure of our media and popular culture that we didn’t know that, that they wouldn’t even let any woman have a speaking role in the movie outside of Leia. In real life, women were already in command by then.
And they were called ma’am.
replied to your post “danceswchopstck
replied to your post “oh noooooooo the niece who has…”
Oh, for sure. Been a DoD civilian on a military base for almost 17 years; not once have I heard a female officer called “Sir” except by accident by a mortified baby lieutenant.
Oh, I think you weren’t here yet for the Sir Discourse. It must be, gosh, like a year ago– and don’t let Discourse make it sound worse than it was, it wasn’t like anyone was really super bitter about it or whatever, but–
I guess there was some sci-fi or fantasy TV show or other, or more than one maybe, that had a woman who was a general or commander or whatever, and everyone called her Sir instead of Ma’am, and it was meant to be a gesture of respect I guess– misgendering this woman was, in-universe, taken to be some sign of how Great her authority was.(I am sure that twenty people will send me messages and asks telling me more about this TV show or movie or whatever it was. I really don’t care, it’s cool if you liked it, I didn’t watch it and don’t care to, I’m not super into most entertainment properties, I’m sure they had some elaborate in-universe justification for it. I honestly don’t give a fuck, if I was going to, I’d have been convinced a year ago.)
And so a handful of people– good writers, people with whose worldview there is nothing appreciably wrong– in homage to this series or movie or book or show or whatever it was, due to how great and culturally formative it was– wrote some excellent fics, but in them, General Leia Organa was called “Sir” by various of her subordinates.
I, not familiar with whatever this other media property was, was sort of horrified. Why the fuck would you misgender a woman General? I didn’t understand it.
Clearly, it was intended as a respectful thing, I was informed. Which, fine, I guess I get the intention. Maybe?
But I was really pretty offended, and remain a bit offended– especially because more than one person informed me that to them, “Ma’am” was a sex worker or dominatrix kind of thing. Which, honestly? That’s a problem with you, not with the word. If you can’t imagine using that honorific for anyone in a real-life scenario outside of sex work, you maybe need to work on that.
Because in real life, women have been in command, in real life, and called by their correctly-gendered honorific in English, in real life, for decades. And to erase the thousands of real women, who in real life, are actually in real life in real command of real soldiers in real wars, is hideously offensive to me.
But like. Your movie or TV show or whatever that posits that women have to be misgendered to be respected is cute, and all. Great.
I still have this photo saved on my hard drive from last time. These are the first two women to be promoted to the rank of General of the United States Army. In 1970. Only seven years before A New Hope came out, sure. But. Seven years before the first Star Wars movie and we already in real life had women who were generals. It is absolutely a failure of our media and popular culture that we didn’t know that, that they wouldn’t even let any woman have a speaking role in the movie outside of Leia. In real life, women were already in command by then.
And they were called ma’am.
