Seems to be a contradiction here, seems like you're ignoring the fact that apparently some real militaries are shifting this way:
Well like everything in the military we hear about, the pencil-pushers have to umm and ahh about it and then the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' argument comes up and I wouldn't be surprised if this comes up in conversation five years later and it's still 'there's discussion in the navy about it!' I highly doubt anything will change until the rest of society starts to call men and women sir.
By the way NGTM-1R, which organisations actually make it the Officer in question's choice? I'm genuinely curious. I've never heard of any female officers kicking up a stink over being called ma'am.
I think it's ridiculously politically correct to use 'ma'am' and 'sir' separately, as clearly that represents an absurd level of concern with not offending women.
I can see where you're coming from, but it's not a view that I hold. Sir/Ma'am was like Mr/Mrs to us. And let me tell you, Ma'am has no feminine or weak traits associated with it when the Squadron's OC is a female.
I think it's PC if we argue about whether we should use 'sir' and 'ma'am' or just 'sir'.
I tend to agree actually, until a female officer in the ADF walks in one day and says she thinks being called ma'am is a massive blow to women, I won't bat an eyelid. As far as I'm concerned, calling a female officer ma'am is tradition and should stay that way until one of them decides it isn't okay.
There are far more important things to worry about in the military than which word you'd like to use to address your officers. If they took submissions for the next title, I'm sure at least a 1/3 would submit 'Lazy C*nt', but that's an entirely different story.
