How wonderful to see so many people argue so passionately about something so trivial! While our government’s computers have been hacked by the Russians, and the President of the United States has invoked the magic words, “THIS ELECTION IS UNDER PROTEST!”, the worst outrage du jour is that Northwestern’s Joseph Epstein wrote that the incoming First Lady should drop the doc.
Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the “Dr.” before your name? “Dr. Jill Biden ” sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic. Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title “Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs.” A wise man once said that no one should call himself “Dr.” unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.
Condescending? Petty? Sexist?
Sebastian Gorka likes to be called ‘Dr. Gorka.’ He gets his way only in conservative media.
That Washington Post, right?
Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Trump, really, really likes to be called “Dr. Gorka” — a hang-up for which he was mocked last week by comedian Samantha Bee.
But getting mocked by Samantha Bee isn’t the same as having a hang-up to a serious news editor.
“My feeling is if you can’t heal the sick, we don’t call you doctor,” Bill Walsh, The Washington Post’s late, great copy chief, told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.
Then there’s the notoriously sexist outlet, NPR.
Longstanding NPR policy is to reserve the title of “Dr.” for an individual who holds a doctor of dental surgery, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine or veterinary medicine.
As NPR’s standards editor Mark Memmott told me, “the idea is that for most listeners a ‘Dr.’ practices medicine.” The language policy is based on the standard laid out by the AP Stylebook, which many news outlets, including NPR, follow.
NPR’s policy is not a case of gender bias; it also applies to men.
And it’s not as if Joe Biden’s wife hadn’t been through this before when Joe was Veep.
“She said, ‘I was so sick of the mail coming to Sen. and Mrs. Biden. I wanted to get mail addressed to Dr. and Sen. Biden.’ That’s the real reason she got her doctorate,” he said.
And it wasn’t just sexist Joe making light of the seriousness of the honorific.
Amy Sullivan, a religion writer for Time magazine, said she smiled when she heard the vice president’s wife announced as Dr. Jill Biden during the national prayer service the day after President Obama’s inauguration.
“Ordinarily when someone goes by doctor and they are a PhD, not an MD, I find it a little bit obnoxious,” Sullivan said.
But not all women took this outrage lightly.
Her name is Dr. Jill Biden. Get used to it.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 13, 2020
Of course, her name is Jill Biden. The “Dr.” is a title, not her name, but why quibble with a former First Lady?
Espstein’s WSJ op-ed swiftly became the object of attack and vitriol for its obvious sexism, compelling the Journal’s opinion editor to go on the defensive.
In the response, published Sunday evening and for Monday’s newspaper, Paul A. Gigot, the top editor for The Journal’s opinion section for nearly two decades, pointed to negative notes about Mr. Epstein’s article posted to Twitter by two Biden staff members as well as Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Senator Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, as evidence of a campaign.
“Why go to such lengths to highlight a single op-ed on a relatively minor issue?” wrote Mr. Gigot, who elsewhere said the responses reflected “what was clearly a political strategy.” “My guess is that the Biden team concluded it was a chance to use the big gun of identity politics to send a message to critics as it prepares to take power. There’s nothing like playing the race or gender card to stifle criticism.”
Who knew a paper of such renown as the Wall Street Journal could be so badly beaten up on twitter that its editor felt compelled to reply?
Should Jill Biden be called “doctor”? Of course. She earned the degree and she’s entitled to use it, if that’s what makes her happy. So what if people assume all doctors are medical? And Dr. Biden’s choice isn’t dictated by the LA Times, the WaPo, or even the AP Stylebook. Whether you think it’s pretentious, or even obnoxious, is irrelevant. She gets to decide for herself what she prefers to be called, just as others get to decide whether they feel she’s being silly about it.
But this debacle is about our critical social issue of whether the First Lady gets to use the honorific “doctor.” How wonderful that we’re back to arguing so passionately about things that matter so little. I can’t wait to see what happens if Joe wears a tan suit and all hell breaks loose.
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One of my professors in graduate school – psychology – said he would refer to himself as ‘doctor” when requesting a restaurant reservation, but ‘mister’ when booking a plumber.
A wise prof. When I make restaurant reservations, I occasionally use the name “Rothschild,” except in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I use the name “Kopf.”
SHG,
If you appropriate my name for a good seating at a swanky restaurant in Lincoln you will be disappointed. In this bastion of sophistication you will find yourself seated next to the kitchen door at the Taco Inn. (But the Guac is to die for.)
All the best.
Dr. Richard G. Kopf,
Juris Doctor
You’re too modest. I got extra cheese on my burrito.
Admiral SHG, Esq.
She should have people call her “Esquire”.
You didn’t get the memo, eh?
I was told this was a lawyer blog. I was just bringing it back on topic.
I don’t know if using the honorific “doctor” can help a man get girls. But I can report anecdotally that it can help you get your car fixed. When I was working in a bookstore years ago, a man who worked part-time had a Ph.D in education, just like Jill Biden. He was telling me one day when we were talking that his auto mechanic had somehow come to think that he was a medical doctor, and my bookstore co-worker always got treated especially well whenever he brought his car in when there was a problem. If you can call yourself “doctor,” it’s a wonderful life. Doors open for you, you get your flat tires fixed faster.
I think you mean, “man get women.”
No…”girls” was deliberate. I’m not as obtuse as I appear. I went with “girls.” I like to live dangerously.
So pedo it is.
Trust me, I’m a doctor . . .
While Mr Gigot claims surprise at the attention of what he described as a minor issue is point out that when the WSJ posted this on social media they didn’t put up its usual paywall.
Seems they wanted it widely read for some reason- not sure why they heys want a minor issue to be widely read
Is that what they did? I wouldn’t know.
Did WSJ raise this issue re Dr. Condoleezza Rice? or is it reserved for Democrats?
Rice was referred to as Madam Secretary because, well, she was Madam Secretary. Then again, if you had a point, you would look for evidence and make it rather than ask a foolish question and conclusively prove you’re not just a blithering idiot, but a lazy one.
Maybe Madam 1st-Lady-Elect ?? … nah too wordy ..
Dr. Hook of Medicine Show fame did not practice medicine. Likewise, Dr. Teeth of the Electric Mayhem Orchestra and the fictional Dr. Johnny Fever of the fictional WKRP in Cincinnati. So, there is ample precedent for the use of “doctor” outside the health care profession. Many pretentious PhD holders use the title, and some of our pretentious fellow JDs do as well. So, as Bugs Bunny might well inquire, “what’s the hubbub, Bub?”
Or there’s Dr. Smith, the chiropractor.
I would argue that Dr. Smith’s degree required more rigorous study than any degree in education.
Plus, chiropractors have a value in our society, unlike doctors of education.
Starting out, Dr. Smith, as flight surgeon, was the only medical character in Lost in Space (later, he was demoted to Doctor of Intergalatic Environmental Psychology). Neither of the Dr. Robinsons practiced medicine, but one was an astrophysicist and the other a biochemist. All things considered, there was really nobody aboard to treat injuries, so a robot had to follow Will Robinson around to warn him of danger.
Let us not forget Dr. Seuss, he didn’t even have a Ph.D.
” How wonderful that we’re back to arguing so passionately about things that matter so little.”
Quite right! And also, how wonderful that we live in this country, where this sort of thing matters so little. To wit, some years ago, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology was charged with “abuse of title”, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison. His Ph.D. was from Cornell, and local law makes it illegal for him to be called “Dr.” Six other Max Planck Institute directors were similarly charged, one with a Ph.D. from Stanford, and one UT Austin (I don’t remember the others). Not that we don’t have overcriminalization problems, but we don’t have neuroses over titles nearly as bad as many Europeans.
Did you know I was Max Planck’s chauffeur?
I do believe Dr. is an appropriate abbreviation for “Driver”. You should take advantage, Dr. SHG, Esquire.
In keeping with “Mr.” and “Sr.” “Dr.” is obviously the abbreviation for “drister.”
I guess I have worked far too long in Higher Ed.
Everyone is a doctor and us non faculty call them all Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones etc. Most of time even in private….though are one or two Dr. Assholes and a Dr. D-bag as well.
As for Dr. Biden, I was more taken aback by the use of kiddo……But my parents also taught me to respect people.
I’ve heard that it was a tacit reference to Joe’s calling her kiddo, but whatever it was, it didn’t work for me either.
After Beatrix Kiddo. It’s an inside “Kill Bill” reference.
One of my favorite vendors, as a younger man, liked to go by ‘Dr. Greens’. I never asked to see his credentials, but then, the medicine he dispensed always worked.
Jake. Don’t do this.
My experience is that if a person with a doctorate insists on being called doctor, they are insecure ass hats. I worked at a university and no one was called doctor except in formal writing. I had assumed Jill Biden was a doctor but now I assume she is a pompous wind bag.
I have seen this with people who train their staff to emphasize the DOCTOR Smith when everyone else is John or Mary. It intimidate the less confident while being a source of laughs for the skilled.
Given that actual consultant physicians here in the UK insist on being addressed as Mr. or Mrs. (or Ms.?) – doctor being too common), I’d think Jill B. is entitled to use the honorific she is entitled to, if that’s what she wants. Most of us who have grazed academia are perfectly aware of what it means.
(is this too sensible a contribution?)