should PHDs refer to themselves as "doctor" in public?

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inspired by k3v's post

https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-white-house-not-if-you-need-an-m-d-11607727380

while this article is obviously stupid and sexist, my ire is somewhat tempered by my longstanding disdain for people who insist on being called “dr” in non-academic settings (and yeah, especially non-physicians *ducks*)

― k3vin k., Saturday, December 12, 2020 5:51 PM bookmarkflaglink

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Yes, let them call themselves whatever they want 23
No, just in the classroom, or among colleagues! Only MDs should call themselves Dr! 14
Nobody should be called Doctor 14
More nuanced opinion that I'm going to elaborate on in 70,000 words 6


Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:10 (four years ago) link

I would think PhDs have a more venerable claim to being called “doctor” than the latter-day barber-surgeons staffing our hospitals

is right unfortunately (silby), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:13 (four years ago) link

When I was just starting out as a supply teacher, the principal at the school I ended up at full-time (by which time she was long gone) insisted on being called Dr. ____________. Much eye-rolling by staff, as I remember it.

clemenza, Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:14 (four years ago) link

But I’m not gonna look it up to check selfxp

is right unfortunately (silby), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:14 (four years ago) link

I went to a casual college for undergrad and called my professors by their first names tho

is right unfortunately (silby), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:16 (four years ago) link

No honorifics no masters IMO

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link

jeez man this really wasn’t the sort of conversation I was intending to spring with that silly comment. idk what “in public” means but I guess my vote is “yes”

k3vin k., Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link

anyway that’s just a personal pet peeve about casual company based on experience. in a news article for example if a physician is going to be referred to as “dr” I agree phds should be too

― k3vin k., Saturday, December 12, 2020 7:16 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

k3vin k., Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link

They should be able to tell taxi drivers "quickly, I'm a doctor!" otherwise what's the point of even doing a PhD?

Gary Sambrook eats substantial meals (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link

Everyone with a MFA should be called Master. Most of them are into BDSM anyway.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:20 (four years ago) link

I'm legit curious about this cos until this year I didn't know people felt otherwise about calling PhDs "doctors".

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:21 (four years ago) link

Does she refer to herself that way? Does she tell others to do so? AMERICA MUST KNOW NOW #mypillow

dow, Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:21 (four years ago) link

Given how anti-intellectual Americans tend to be, having a PhD and insisting on being addressed as Dr. So-and-so will rarely result in even the tiniest bit of added respect once it is realized that you are not an MD. But those who insist on marking themselves out in this way should not be hindered from doing it. It helps one to better understand their mentality.

Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:21 (four years ago) link

I have a Bachelors and call myself Bachelor Neanderthal

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:22 (four years ago) link

Hell no, unless you're an exceptionally gifted self-deprecator.

pomenitul, Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:22 (four years ago) link

It would be weird to introduce yourself at a party by saying "Good to meet you I'm Dr. Guayaquil Eeephus" but as a professional identifier I have zero problem with people doing it, and I have 100% sympathy for women and Black people who identify themselves professionally as such to ward off reflexive disrespect from people who assume they're unqualified for whatever it is they're doing. Also, my elementary school principal was Dr. such and such and it was no big deal, it's just what he was called and nobody got confused and thought he was an obstetrician or something

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:33 (four years ago) link

Everyone with a MFA should be called Master. Most of them are into BDSM anyway.

― onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Saturday, December 12, 2020 6:20 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I disagree. Since being awarded my MFA I've learned pretty hard on the "FINE" part.

underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link

*leaned

underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Sunday, 13 December 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link

As long as dentists don’t get called doctor I’m ok with whatever

All cars are bad (Euler), Sunday, 13 December 2020 01:18 (four years ago) link

It would be more fun if dentists were known as Dentist Smith or whatever instead of Dr.

sinewave boogie (Matt #2), Sunday, 13 December 2020 01:52 (four years ago) link

Anyway do you want to tell this man he can't be called doctor?

http://jmu-journalism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/LJMU-Chancellor-Emeritus-Brian-May.-Photo-by-Josh-Parry-300x225.jpg

sinewave boogie (Matt #2), Sunday, 13 December 2020 01:53 (four years ago) link

Oh ffs anyway it's Dr Brian May

sinewave boogie (Matt #2), Sunday, 13 December 2020 01:54 (four years ago) link

drentitled like anybody else

spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 13 December 2020 01:55 (four years ago) link

"I am doctor (name)" = OK
"My name is doctor (name)" = not OK

StanM, Sunday, 13 December 2020 02:00 (four years ago) link

My Name is Doc
And I am malpracticey

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 02:01 (four years ago) link

http://akadocpomus.com/

Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:05 (four years ago) link

My name is doctor (name)
I’m not a real doctor but I am a real (name)

is right unfortunately (silby), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:06 (four years ago) link

I'm in spitting distance of my PhD, but I'm never even that comfortable with students calling me "Professor" or "Mr. _______."

Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:10 (four years ago) link

Dr Sicko

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:12 (four years ago) link

starring Larry Drake

Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:14 (four years ago) link

They should absolutely call themselves "doctor," but cautiously, so they don't ever find themselves in a situation where someone might actually be looking for a medical doctor, like on an airplane.

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:14 (four years ago) link

never cared what phds called themselves but i don't like it when lawyers call themselves esquire

superdeep borehole (harbl), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:16 (four years ago) link

eephus otm

assert (MatthewK), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:24 (four years ago) link

Only lawyers who’ve groomed horses get to call themselves esquire.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:25 (four years ago) link

All of my art professors went by their first name, but blessedly never crossed the line into “hello fellow kids.”

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:27 (four years ago) link

long ago when i worked for a (racist southern) school system i was a little weirded out by black women insisting on Miss X. i was happy to follow along, but also was like why so formal, i mean you can call me j___ or whatever, right?

no.

they earned respect by demanding that they not be just kadena or mona but miss kadena and miss johnson. and it's not a small thing at all. i can get that respect anywhere by being white; they had to fight for it every fucking day.

anyway congrats to the wsj for stirring up shit via an octogenarian without an advanced degree

mookieproof, Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:32 (four years ago) link

Epstein's a cloying prick.

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:35 (four years ago) link

at least he seems to have been excoriated over it today

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:36 (four years ago) link

Not the point, the criticism doesn’t mean anything compared to the freedom to say it on a national platform.

assert (MatthewK), Sunday, 13 December 2020 04:54 (four years ago) link

If I had a doctorate of any kind I would be charging around like Tom Cruise in eyes wide shut

Gab B. Nebsit (wins), Sunday, 13 December 2020 09:35 (four years ago) link

I think it's cool if someone with a PhD wants to be called Doctor, however people should also be able ask them if they are an actual Doctor Doctor and then they should be obliged to respond, "I am not a Doctor Doctor, and I am not giving you the news, and I definitely do not have a bad case of loving you."

sarahell, Sunday, 13 December 2020 10:06 (four years ago) link

what if not a doctor doctor but have a bad case of lovin?

assert (MatthewK), Sunday, 13 December 2020 10:35 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwNOmS78q-o

Sven Vath's scary carpet (Neil S), Sunday, 13 December 2020 10:46 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe8CttkfLj0

xyzzzz__, Sunday, 13 December 2020 11:44 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y10VEkyKd3w

buzza, Sunday, 13 December 2020 12:01 (four years ago) link

the best doctor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grlp2OGeQIc

im-polite-post-post-post-pomo (breastcrawl), Sunday, 13 December 2020 12:22 (four years ago) link

I used to jokingly insist on my Dr. title and had it on my credit card and some other things, though very rarely now that a few more years have passed.

For me it was always a very self deprecating thing (which I genuinely think/hope wasn't too irritating in real life) as I totally left the field that I studied in after completing my PhD, so those couple of letters and a punctuation mark are about all that I used of 4+ years of mental struggle & anguish.

I am proud that I got my PhD in the end, but I don't think I did it for the right reasons at all, so using the Dr. title was mainly me making a joke at my own useless expense.

brain (krakow), Sunday, 13 December 2020 13:15 (four years ago) link

ime of (mostly UK) academia, nobody calls themselves "Dr" - normal people don't care, and your colleagues all have a PhD too so what's the point. "Professor" (equivalent of full professor in US) is the title that people do make a deal about.

Other European countries are far more credentialist, e.g. it's a crime to call yourself "Dr" in Germany if you don't have a valid doctorate. Until pretty recently, a doctorate from a US university was not considered valid: https://htor.inf.ethz.ch/blog/index.php/2008/11/06/you-can-also-call-me-dr-in-germany/

People who have left academia seem more likely to use their title, maybe because it helps them stand out in whatever profession they're in or maybe as the payoff for where ~4 years of their live went - ah xp to krakow

timber euros (seandalai), Sunday, 13 December 2020 13:26 (four years ago) link

Yeah, "the payoff for where ~4 years of their live went" is a good way to put it for me. Sigh.

brain (krakow), Sunday, 13 December 2020 13:41 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1_4hEhxGU

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:08 (four years ago) link

never cared what phds called themselves but i don't like it when lawyers call themselves esquire

― superdeep borehole (harbl), Saturday, December 12, 2020 11:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm x1000

The rule quoted to me when I got out of law school 20+ years ago was that you use esq. as an honorific when addressing another lawyer but never to use it when addressing yourself. Now it just sounds pre-modern like viscount or something.

I had a colleague (an attorney) recently insist that I add esq. to my email signature so that clients would know I was an attorney and I told him to get lost because (a) my title was already in my signature and indicates I am an attorney (I'm in-house), and (b) fuck esq.

Joe Biden Shot My Dog - Vols. I-XL (PBKR), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:14 (four years ago) link

when I was an undergrad students at my dumb university called the profs "doctor" & I gotta admit that one reason I got a PhD was because I thought that honorific sounded badass, but once I started teaching no one's called me "doctor" except maybe as a joke a few times. that was in the usa. in France it's the same, no one calls PhDs or profs "doctor", just Monsieur or Madame just like everyone else except medical doctors who sometimes at least get called Docteur. also the title "professeur" here applies to both high school teachers and university faculty, so that title is also rarely used. I'm now "full" professor & aside from the congrats phone call when I got the position no one's used that title for me here.

it will still be fun to go to Germany and get called Herr Professor Doktor a few times.

All cars are bad (Euler), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:47 (four years ago) link

No to all labels

Tho my aulfella getting a "rt honorable" on his credit card amused us for a while

spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:58 (four years ago) link

The rule quoted to me when I got out of law school 20+ years ago was that you use esq. as an honorific when addressing another lawyer

i was told the same, and most people in the office where i spent the most time didn't break this rule. then i went to another office that i hated and people put it in their email signatures. wtf?

superdeep borehole (harbl), Sunday, 13 December 2020 15:13 (four years ago) link

PhDs may refer to themselves as "doctor" but only if they then explain what philosophiae means.

jmm, Sunday, 13 December 2020 15:16 (four years ago) link

Meant to put this here but it got into the Biden thread
...

why is everyone so deferential about MDs?

What would you say to someone who was okay with "Ms. Biden" if we also default to "Mr. Fauci"?

(Fauci, by the way, has been a researcher and administrator of a research institution, but has pretty much never been a clinician and has certainly never delivered a baby.)

Like, I haven't seen much space given to the opinion that medical doctors are also just people who do jobs, and when they're not in the act of doing that job they may also just as well be Mr., Ms., Tony, or Jill.

Hero worship of doctors as ministering angels would make more sense if we didn't have Scott Atlas, the "alien sperm" person, Trump’s weird crazy-hair guy. Or a zillion plastic surgeons and dentists and psychopharmacologists who have done way more harm than good, and certainly more harm than yr average quiet English professor or, for that matter, Jill Biden.

Again I am cool with leveling all the PhDs in art history or whatever, but I don't see why we should stop there.

If someone with a doctorate in medieval poetry is only "Dr. So-and-so" when in a classroom or on campus, ok.

But then a gastroenterologist is ALSO "Dr. So-and-so" only when in an examining room or a hospital. Deal?

mother should I build the walmart (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 13 December 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link

sure but only gastroenterologists

k3vin k., Sunday, 13 December 2020 21:36 (four years ago) link

Theyll never swallow that

spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 13 December 2020 21:39 (four years ago) link

I voted "nobody" because being forced to consider the idea it reminded me of how annoying it is when North Americans refer to Sir Patrick Stewart or Dame Judi Dench

loose Orwellian mobs (rob), Sunday, 13 December 2020 21:41 (four years ago) link

Definitely not in public. The only place they should refer to themselves as "doctor" is in the bedroom.

henry s, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:21 (four years ago) link

Only if they're playing doctor.

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:25 (four years ago) link

No

flappy bird, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:39 (four years ago) link

Obnoxious

flappy bird, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:39 (four years ago) link

I hate academia so fucking much it's unreal

flappy bird, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:40 (four years ago) link

-Armond White

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:40 (four years ago) link

Armond doesn't swear

flappy bird, Sunday, 13 December 2020 22:47 (four years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 30 December 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Thursday, 31 December 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link


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