Who can prefix ‘Doctor’ before their names?
Only those who carry stethoscopes and deliver babies, but definitely not United States’ incoming First Lady Dr Jill Biden – who holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education – if one goes by a column published in The Wall Street Journal on 12 December.
Written by former editor of The American Scholar magazine Joseph Epstein, his appeal to Dr Biden to drop the honorific has come under fire for being ‘misogynistic in substance and tone.’
Dr Biden responded to the column, without addressing it directly, tweeting that the accomplishments of daughters will be celebrated and not diminished.
What Does The Controversial Column Say?
The problem begins at the very beginning.
“Madame First Lady — Mrs Biden — Jill — kiddo,” the piece starts, “Any chance you might drop the ‘Dr’ before your name? ‘Dr Jill Biden’ sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”
Dr Biden holds a Bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree from the University of Delaware, as well as a Master’s degree each from West Chester University and Villanova University.
She was called a ‘kiddo’ by a man who holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. Notably, the incoming First Lady is also 69 years old.
Arguing that the value of PhDs has been reduced to ‘political correctness’ and ‘relaxation of academic standards’, the writer asks Dr Biden to “forget the small thrill of being Dr Jill, and settle for the larger thrill of living for the next four years in the best public housing in the world as First Lady Jill Biden.”
He further writes:
“A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr’ unless he has delivered a child,” he continued. “Think about it, Dr Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.”
‘Disgusting, Sexist’: Fiery Social Media Backlash
US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ husband and lawyer Doug Emhoff was one of the first people to show support to Dr Biden, tweeting that such an article would “never have been written about a man.”
The Northwestern University, where Epstein claims he taught for 30 years, issued a statement saying it “strongly disagrees” with his misogynistic views. They also said that he has not been teaching there since 2003.
In a separate statement, the university’s English department rejected the column, adding “as well as the diminishment of anyone’s duly-earned degrees in any field, from any university.”
Former US Presidential candidate and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Martin Luther King’s daughter Bernice King, and President-elect Joe Biden’s Spokesperson Michael LaRosa were among the many who tore into the piece.
Women Academics Support Dr Biden
The biggest support for Dr Biden came from women academics who pointed that she was mansplained, given unsolicited advise by a man “who lacks the credentials and standing to address her.”
Women also started adding ‘Dr’ to their Twitter profile to show that they must wear their achievements with pride.
Epstein, A Homophobe vs Dr Biden the ‘First’ First Lady to Work
According to The New York Times, this is not the first time 83-year-old essayist Epstein has made offensive statements.
In an essay about homosexuality in Harper’s Magazine, in 1970, the so-called-scholar called queer people “cursed” and “an affront to our rationality.”
“If I had the power to do so, I would wish homosexuality” off the face of the earth, he wrote.
“My only hope now is that, on my gravestone, the words Noted Homophobe aren’t carved,” Epstein wrote, in another essay in 2015, in The Weekly Standard, the NYT pointed out.
Meanwhile, breaking a 231-year norm, Dr Jill Biden is going to be the first First Lady to have two jobs – as America’s FLOTUS and Northern Virginia Community College’s professor of English.
First-Lady historian Katherine Jellison told USA Today that no previous FLOTUS has been “allowed” to have a work and family life. “Maybe the time has come when Americans will be more accepting of the idea that a president's wife can simultaneously be a first lady and a working professional,” she had said, earlier in November.
Looks like the country needs more time to ‘accept.’
(With inputs from The New York Times, NPR)
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