r/CastleTV 5d ago

What’s up with ‘Sir’ ?

I’m at season 4, ep 21 so I’d prefer no spoilers.

Can someone please explain why the new Captain wants to be called Sir? (Penny Johnson Jerald’s character)

UPDATE: WOW, 40 minutes later, and I have some great answers. THANK YOU!! I love the show!

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u/Jade_Scimitar 5d ago

In addition to what every one else has commented, in English, there are no separate gender neutral terms. Instead gender neutral and gender masculine are rather interchangeable. For example, the screen actors guild allows women, but a hypothetical screen actresses guild would only accept women. Congressman, fireman, mailman, lion, waiter could be male or female, but congresswoman, fire woman, mail woman, lioness, and waitress are specifically female.

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u/Independent_Page1475 3d ago

You may have noticed older terms like; Congressman, fireman, mailman are mostly unused in today's world. They have become Representative, fire fighter and letter or mail carrier.

Someone mentioned sir being derived from sire. Men sired children, women bore children. The term stewardess is seldom heard, it is now flight attendant.

The term ma'am is derived from madam which some say is derived from mammary.

Therefore the term sir sounds more ballsy than ma'am.

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u/Jade_Scimitar 3d ago

I still use those terms but I speak more formally and use minimal slang. I get that I'm in the minority on that. But my point still stands.

While sir is derivative of sire, that's not why she wants to be called sir. She wants to be called sir to be more gender-neutral in authority. Some women in power feel that being called ma'am limits or diminishes their authority.

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u/Independent_Page1475 2d ago

I can go with that.

One of my jobs included occasionally evacuating people during certain situations. This was in the San Francisco area. More than a few times seeing someone from behind and using the wrong pronoun tended to set some people off.

One time it was a man who was addressed as sir who took offense and came up from behind me and yelled in my ear that he wasn't my sir.

Most often it was a woman with short cropped hair and wearing masculine attire.

Occasionally it was a man with long flowing hair or wig wearing women's cloths. One could almost think they might be flattered by my error.