I don’t need no doctor
Humanity’s backslide into idiocy is outpacing even the predictions issued in the late 1970s by Devo, short for de-evolution.
Our latest evidence the band from Ohio exhibited extreme prescience is the kerfuffle over how to address our new First Lady — a nonissue arising from an essay in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal.
It seems Jill Biden earned a PH.D. in Education a few years back, which some folks think entitles her to be addressed as Dr., as in doctor, because she did indeed earn a doctorate.
To argue that point is apparently not only sexist but misogynistic, as Joseph Epstein has been called since the WSJ published his essay. For his thought-crime, Northwestern University felt it necessary to distance itself from the emeritus essayist.
The media universe exploded into a frenzy of outrage.
As for me, I have no dog in the fight nor do I really care. My career trajectory didn’t include sniffing the tail feathers of post-graduate professors in the pursuit of having my own tail feathers subsequently sniffed by undergrads.
Had I pursued a doctorate, however, I doubt I’d insist all who address me do so by acknowledging my highest degree as a prefix to my full name.
I do know this: I have slung my byline far and wide these past 45 years or so, and most of my editors insisted the title should be reserved for medical doctors only — including one esteemed fellow with a Master’s Degree in Journalism … ahem! … from Northwestern for whom I contributed essays, reviews and articles for more than 15 years.
I’ve also edited automotive engineering proceedings manuals and magazines wherein contributors insisted on identification as Doctor(s). Apparently, automotive engineers only pay attention to other engineers with more advanced degrees under their respective belts.
All this seems selfimportant given doctors and other health care workers put their own tail feathers on the line each day to treat the rest of us and especially so during the coronapocalypse.
According to Epstein, “A wise man once said no should call himself ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child.” Had I been Epstein’s editor, I would have made the sentence more gender inclusive, but no one thought to ask a guy whose primary physician and dentist both are highly qualified, very sharp individuals of the female persuasion.
As a working journalist, I typically defer to the Associated Press Stylebook, which further muddies the water. For example, it’s not acceptable to refer to someone with an honorary doctorate as a “Dr.” but it is okay to use the prefix for non-medical professionals as long as the writer specifies in which field the doctorate was earned on either the first or second reference.
Those of us who were around to witness the behavior of 2017 might recall a similar cultural battle when a deputy assistant to a guy who assumed the presidency that year, Sebastian Gorka. Seems Gorka was pretty adamant about people calling him Dr. Gorka.
AP Style would require I add Gorka earned a PH.D. in political science. I can assure readers not many media outlets complied with Gorka’s wishes given his political affiliation. Is this evidence of sexism, misogyny, or just blind partisanship by the same people snarking at the 84-year-old Epstein?
So spare me the bushwa about a man would never be subjected to such a scathing insult … it’s neither about gender nor inherently an insult. It’s a simple proposition with which one can agree or disagree, it’s hoped, in a civilized fashion without setting one self’s hair on fire and waging jihad against a straw man.
The point of Epstein’s essay, after all, was perhaps we all take ourselves too seriously. We don’t do social castes in America. Maybe we need a (real) doctor to pull the stick out?
As for me, I have no dog in the fight nor do I really care. My career trajectory didn’t include sniffing the tail feathers of post-graduate professors in the pursuit of having my own tail feathers subsequently sniffed by undergrads.