The Imperial Rank of Earl

Got the final Naval Progression Mission to Rank up in the Empire today to Earl.

I just had to kill 9 pirates in a neighbouring system.  Nothing was in the system apart from a Red Dwarf and an T-Class Brown Dwarf.  So I started hunting the Unidentified Signal Sources.

6 pirates down in the first 2 USS's and then I saw a Strong Signal Source, and decided to cautiously give it a go, but as soon as I saw what was in there I was like "No, RUN!!!"

2 wings of high class combat ships comprising Fer-De-Lances and Vultures???  I don't think so.

The final USS contained a wing of 4 pirates comprising 3 Sidewinders and a Cobra.  A bit more my size.  I popped 2 of the Sidewinders before the Cobra even got involved.  Call yourselves a Wing? lol

So back at the dock I turned the mission in an went from Count to Earl.

However, I don't really want to be Earl, its a male title,  I raised a ticket about the Imperial Ranks being Gender Specific back in January.  Frontier's support said they would pass it to the devs; but 3 months later it's still the same and has started a foray on the forums.

David Braben even was asked this point during the AMA session on the forums yesterday:-

 Originally Posted by Alexandra Wolf 

I'm very much a fan of how Frontier has handled gender balance in its NPC characters, but as an Imperial citizen I'm quite disappointed to be hailed as a "Lord" and then "Baron" and so on. Is there a reason why the Empire has no Lady/Baroness/Viscountess/Countess ranks, or is this fixable? (FYI, there has never been a female equivalent of an Earl, perhaps Marquis/Marquess or Duke/Duchess could be substituted?) Also, will ranks within powers avoid this issue?

"You're right. This has come up before too. There is some context here, but I think it is something we want to look at down the line.
Margaret Thatcher insisted on being "Prime Minister" when she took power (ie not "Prime Mistress") and many female actors are not known as actresses at their own request. Similarly women chairmen. So there is an argument that gender-specific roles will lose their specificity over time".

I think the problem is that yes, Frontier would like to do this however there's a long list of things to do that have higher priority and as the female player base is very small - 1 in 20?  They don't see it as a priority for the developers.

But thanks to Misterjunkz, I'm happy now :-)  #EliteDangerous should take note.

@marajaden FIXED :P pic.twitter.com/JiBmUUHMPt
— Mister Junkz (@Misterjunkz) April 25, 2015