Why The Empire Calls Female Imperial Officers "Sir"
Warning! SPOILERS for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 4.
In Obi-Wan Kenobi, like all of Star Wars, female Imperial officers are addressed as «sir» — but why? Obi-Wan Kenobi's fourth episode contained a tense sequence in which Tala (Indira Varma), a resistance operative, goes undercover as an Imperial officer in Fortress Inquisitorius so that she may provide Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) with safe passage through the base. There is a scene in which a security officer demands to see Tala's Imperial identification, and though they are initially reluctant to let her through, her convincing portrayal as their commanding officer does the trick.
Throughout this strained exchange, the security officer refers to Tala as «sir,» despite her being a female commander. This is quite a common occurrence, not just inObi-Wan Kenobi or even Star Wars as a whole, but in other science-fiction media as well. Battlestar Galactica comes to mind, for example, but it also happens in other big franchises, such as Star Trek. There are certain to be more instances, but the most important question here is why female commanding officers are often referred to as «sir» within the science-fiction genre and Star Wars universe when in reality it is typically used as a specifically gendered term.
Related: The Third Sister Gave Darth Vader His Cleverest Idea In A New Hope
Within Star Wars, the Empire is not the only organization to use the term «sir» as a way of addressing a female superior officer. Both the Grand Army of the Republic and the Jedi have been known to address their female leaders in this way, with the Jedi also using the term «Master» as a way of addressing those Jedi who hold the high rank of Master, regardless of gender or species. How the term «sir» is
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