Are droids a ‘he/she’ or an ‘it’?

Question

Inspired by this question. Are droids in the Star Wars universe referred to with gendered pronouns (i.e. he or she), or are they referred to as objects (i.e. it)?

Answer 1

Droids have personality, and that personality can be masculine or feminine.

R2-D2 and C-3P0 have (arguably) masculine personalities, either because they developed that way or they were initially programmed that way. Or, potentially, because I have a cultural bias that paints the actions of both as 'more male' than 'more female'.

Therefore it's not incorrect to apply gendered pronouns to them. 'It', however, would also be accurate.

Some droids, rarely referenced, are more appropriate to be called 'male' or 'female' due to...enhancements made to suit their primary purpose, but they are rarely touched upon even in the books.

There's more evidence that C-3P0 is male, quite famously.

As this NSFW photo attests to

Answer 2

There are definitely droids that have an apparent gender.

There are definitely droids that have no gender as well.

Star wars. I'd say a lot of the droids there have no personality, limited personality, or hidden personality. Either way, they definitely look androgynous.

There's a cultural bias, that when a AI expresses a personality that has neither masculine or feminine traits, they are seen as masculine anyway. See R2-D2.

Answer 3

The obviously female ones shouldn't be called 'droids' anyway, assuming that the term is a contraction of 'android'. Strictly speaking 'androids' are male and 'gynoids' are female, so they'd be called 'noids'.