On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a piece by Joseph Epstein, the octogenarian essayist, arguing that Jill Biden ought not use the honorific “Doctor” in everyday use. Her Doctor of Education degree, he asserted, should not confer the same regard as a medical doctor.
Epstein’s clearly comedic designation of the 69-year-old career educator as a “kiddo” and his unnecessary musings on his own academic career proved more cringeworthy than insightful. But after years of watching the media spread conspiracy theories ranging from Russian collusion to gang rape committed by a Supreme Court nominee, it’s hard to get too upset over such an op-ed criticizing the use of a prefix by the incoming first lady.
Naturally, cue the outrage:
There will most definitely be a doctor in the White House come Jan. 21st, and her name will be @DrBiden. To suggest otherwise — and to have the audacity to request that she drop her hard-earned title — is sexist and completely insulting. #WeHaveHerBack https://t.co/yO7v0LH5TU
— TIME’S UP (@TIMESUPNOW) December 12, 2020
The idea that it’s classier to skip the honorific b/c only MDs are doctors comes from men of w/status trying to be WASPy & flaunt their fake humility.
When nonwhites & women finally started getting PhDs, they condemned as tacky if they referred to the accomplishment.
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) December 12, 2020
I read a bit of this last night. Today, I read whole piece of trash. Pissed me off even more. Still don’t know who the hell Joseph Epstein is -other than a bloviating, misogynist, condescending horse’s ass. @WSJ, I thought u were better than this. https://t.co/qjjLn5rBzM
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) December 13, 2020
It wasn’t just tweets. The backlash also included countless other ponderers opining about the piece at other papers! News reporter Michael Levenson noted in a snarky parenthetical in his headline that “Few Were Swayed” by Epstein’s argument.
For four years, we’ve endured “journalism” about whether Melania Trump actually deserved the moniker of “supermodel” and whether the 2016 election was actually rigged. In a sane world, the Epstein piece would barely cause a ripple, let alone create its own news cycle. But we live in stupid times, and thus, we earned our plum preview to the post-Trump media.
The media seem keen indeed to return to the eight-year vacation they were taking during the Obama administration. If you think I’m spewing conservative grievances, then enjoy this thread from Glenn Greenwald, who rightly highlights the mockery heaped upon politicos with doctorates who use the term “doctor,” ranging from Trump-ally Sebastian Gorka to former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, an actual medical doctor.
Perhaps the most savage mockery came from @iamsambee, who announced that only insecure losers with shoddy intellects want to be publicly addressed as “Doctor.”
It was deeply misogynistic, as one of her examples was an actual medical doctor: @DrJillStein. Shameful stuff here: pic.twitter.com/WDKah8mlEn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 14, 2020
In 2015, then-R Street Institute scholar R.J. Lehmann tackled the question of who gets the coveted designation of “doctor” in the pages of the New York Times. This was back when world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson was notably snubbed.
“Thus, head-to-head, we see that Times blogs refer to Jill Biden as ‘Dr.’ nearly half the time (48.3 percent) while referring to Ben Carson as ‘Dr.’ just 8.9 percent of the time,” Lehmann wrote. “She is called ‘Mrs. Biden’ just 6.9 percent of the time, while he is called ‘Mr. Carson’ 34.7 percent of the time.”
If Biden is actually Dr. Biden, then Newt Gingrich is Dr. Gingrich. Ben Sasse is Dr. Sasse. Better yet, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is Dr. Gorsuch, Esquire!
If all of this sounds ridiculous, it’s intended to. It’s extraordinarily pathetic to care about the stature of your alma mater or your degree if you don’t have the record to back it up.
Mrs. Biden has quite the record. She’ll be the first first lady to keep a full-time job outside of the White House. And there’s no question that a woman who picked up the pieces of the former vice president’s personal tragedies to reshape the Biden family must be a very impressive lady.
So there’s no reason to pretend that elitist credentialism is anything more than sexism in disguise. Let us regard Biden with the respect of someone who’s earned her keep as a stateswoman, a mother, and an educator.
