Revenge Of The Honorifics

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 the Jill Biden be called “doctor”? Of course. She earned the degree and she’s entitled to use it. 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.