Doctor Who, Jill Biden?

Update: I wrote the below in May 2013 in response to a National Review article. The issue is ripe again with a December 11, 2020 op-ed in the WSJ, making mostly the same argument, complete with calling Dr. Biden kiddo. Sexist tropes are very slow to die.

***

Doctor Who? No, not Dr. Who.

“Doctor Who?” is what the National Review Online asks about Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the Vice President.

Apparently, that well-regarded think-tank takes issue with such insistence upon a professional distinction. In the article entitled, “Diagnosing Dr. Biden: The second lady exemplifies a bloated class of people with irrelevant, unimpressive titles,” we’re told that, “Dr. Biden isn’t a physician, of course. She has a doctorate – in ‘educational leadership,’ whatever the hell that is.”

Biting wit, to be sure. Continue reading Doctor Who, Jill Biden?