Marine Corps Urged To Ban Gender Identifiers For Superiors

The US Marines may ban recruits from the respectful culture of addressing senior officers and drill instructors as “sir” or “ma’am.” In a newly released academic report, the University of Pittsburgh recently recommended the dropping of those words so as to avoid “misgendering” and offending senior addressees.

The recommendation, seen as woke by conservatives, asserted that the traditional way of addressing superiors among the Marines is a deterrent to gender integration.

“Employing gender-neutral identifiers eliminates the possibility of misgendering drill instructors, which can unintentionally offend or cause discord,” the study said, adding that the use of gender-neutral identifiers within the Marines undermines the importance of respecting those in authority regardless of their gender.

The two-year study first commissioned by the Corps in 2020 further said that other military outfits in the United States, such as the Navy, Army, and Coast Guard have adopted gender-neutral identifiers.

“Instead of saying ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir,’ recruits in these Services refer to their drill instructors using their ranks or roles followed by their last names,” it read.

The study which introduced the need for gender-neutral salutations concluded that the change in how superiors are addressed would make the two genders feel more comfortable.

The 738-page proposal is one of six recommendations to be put before the Marines’ entry-level training advisory council. According to chief of staff for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, Col. Howard HalI, it is being considered by the service. However, there has been some pushback to the change, which is not only seen by some as just another policy grounded in wokeness but is also seen as another step the United States would take towards being a laughing stock to the world.

As reported by the Marine Corps Times, Hall expressed several concerns about the proposal, which he believes will create unnecessary confusion among the recruits. “All of a sudden, we change something at recruit training, and recruits start coming in and using a different identifier. It’s not something we would change overnight,” he stated, adding, “again, we’ve got a history of ‘sir, ma’am, sir, ma’am.’ If we change something at the root level, how do we make the corresponding change at the Fleet Marine Force?

Hall also fears that the sudden change is going to take great effort to achieve. “What is inculcating in our young recruits that will or will not be reinforced when they graduate and enter the fleet Marine force? So again, we want to avoid any quick-fix solutions that introduce perturbations down the line,” he said.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also spoke against the suggestion on Twitter, highlighting how it will worsen the military recruitment crisis the country continues to face.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR