question re: respectful address to female Starfleet officers

[edenfalling]

Question: during Star Trek: TOS, are female Starfleet officers addressed as sir or as ma'am?

I ask because while I am deliberately ignoring and/or overwriting most of the casual sexism of the original series -- it is skeevy and unpalatable and I refuse to think that even the Eugenics Wars would set progress back that far -- I would like to be semi-period-accurate on small details, if possible.

...

It's probably an irrelevant question anyway, since the Amber Lotus is not affiliated with Starfleet, but the ship does maintain at least a sketchy hierarchy, and when Captain Castaño is giving direct orders, it seems to me that Kath might respond more formally than she is otherwise accustomed to doing.

(Untitled Star Trek: AOS story is now at 8,675 words in rough draft. They have found a potential cure and treatment has commenced! Now I just have to bring on the PIRATES. *evil laughter*)

Comments

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

According to memory alpha, "Sir is a term used by Starfleet and Bajoran officers to address officers of higher rank. Although the term is generally considered to be male specific, it is also used when addressing female officers as well."

[edenfalling]

Hmmm. On the other hand, running a Memory Alpha search for "ma'am," I find episode transcripts where that term is used to address Janeway. So maybe they are both used? But back during TOS, I bet ma'am was more common. (Stupid sexism.)

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

In the rest of the article I quoted, Janeway is noted for preferring to be referred to by rank, and also accepting ma'am :D

[edenfalling]

Now I want to know how general crewmembers referred to Uhura, since she was an officer during the relevant time period (rather than a century later).

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Does a search of ma'am return any results for Uhura?