Gym thinks only men can be Drs

Disbelieve me if you like about the Facebook thing I couldn't believe it either, in such a big company with so many users and an image to maintain. They must just have male and female users, and those who are unspecified remain male but with, presumably, bits changed here and there that tell the page to use a gender-neutral pronoun

I admit, I am struggling to find a polite way to address you, FC, with that name!

"Unemployed Cunt."

Hmm. It does have a certain ring to it.

Actually buffy I think it's likely worse than assuming doctors are male. I would lay odds that the code is along the lines of all customers defaulting to male, then, only if you select a definitely female title does it switch you to female. I've seen it too often.

Pom - my bank did this when I added dp to my account. I complained, they fixed it, and gave me 50 quid to apologise.

Huh. That's really dubious, fat - I thought FB had introduced a huge spectrum of identities, so you'd think they'd be really hot on that sort of thing?

sylv - to be fair, though, that's only because of conventions, and they are odd conventions. There's no strong reason why it should be the case - only, it has been defined as such.

Okay it is ghastly but I am always a little hmm when people use Dr outside of work. None of my doctor friends ever do only a friend with a PhD does.

Well, that will be because your 'doctor friends' are technically only 'doctors' at work. They are doctors, like a plumber is a plumber, because doctoring is what they do. It isn't actually their title. That's why consultants become Mr/Mrs/Ms again, because they are no longer doctors. Unless they have a PhD ;)

Whereas a person who has a PhD - their title IS doctor. It refers to something that is inalienably about them, isn't transferable and doesn't change whatever job they do. For women especially, it's certainly a far more relevant way of titling oneself (if applicable) than marital status. No-one needs titles, they're redundant in modern society, but until they fall out of use, a person with a PhD calling themselves by the title 'Dr' is just as sensible, if not more so, than someone changing from Miss to Mrs simply because they signed a different bit of paper.

It's a shame that being a medic and achieving a doctorate use the same words to describe them, but far more depressing is the inevitable chippiness that pops up (which always, and so stupidly, sneers something along the lines of 'proper doctors', referring to medical staff) whenever PhDs are mentioned. It's baffling - I don't think it happens outside of the UK. Perhaps they'd all be happier if we all referred to one another as 'Plumber Smith' 'Optician Johnson' 'CallCentreOperative Clarkson' and the like

Pom, that makes no sense though, if both the statements are for the same account and sent to you and your DH.

I joined Facebook a few years ago and didn't set my gender. A couple of years later, I marked my brother as "Brother", and he presumably marked me back.

When I went on his profile later, I saw myself listed as " FatCunt - Brother"

So Facebook assumed I'm male.

pom - that's an odd one!

Is he the first named account holder, by any chance? I've read on here before about banks that 'just happen' to designate men as first-named account holders, even if you specified the opposite when you opened the account, so it might be that is what happened?

Very dodgy.

Well, there's an awful lot you 'haven't seen', isn't there?

Like, the story the OP was referring to.

I see the thread has moved on but the statements for DH & my joint account are addressed to 'Mr DH' and 'Mr DH & Mrs DW'. Has always bothered me that he gets his own statement but I don't and 'my' statement is sent to both of us.
Not bothered enough to do anything about it, naturally :) especially as both statements are exactly the same...but still, tis a wierd set up by the bank

Ohhh, you had 'moved on'.

I'm sorry. My telepathy is on the blink, you see. Your continued posts indicated to me you had signally failed to 'move on'.

I can either go on or not go on.

Your choice.

No. It is your choice, and yours alone, the same as it is for anyone else here. You make the decision to type in the message box, you make the decision to click POST MESSAGE. No one else can make that choice for you, because we are not logged on as you at your keyboard.

You can't make it anyone else's choice, because you are the only one who is capable of making that decision for every post you make. If you choose to go round and round in circles, it is your decision, and you can't make anyone else take the blame. You also have the choice of not reading a thread any further, of reading but not posting, of logging out of Mumsnet, of going away from your keyboard and doing something entirely different altogether.

If you choose to go on, it is your choice.

I think, by now, this thread is mostly about you.

Which would be fine, except, I was actually quite bothered about the woman in the OP, and think it'd have been nice to talk about that instead.

kim, I never said you were posting nonsense. I said that, should you wish me to imagine things are different from reality, I will happily do that for your sake, to make your life easier. Ok?

If that accommodation will mean you can happily ramble on about things you've no idea about, that's fine by me.

Or, you know, you could just admit that you, like others on this thread, didn't happen to google for that bit of information and consequently were ignorant of the full story.

Being ignorant isn't a huge crime, you know. Defending it to the point of absurdity is, well, rather silly.

I've had a go at others upthread. I've already pointed that out to you, the last time you tried that one.

The only reason I am continuing to address you, is because other posters either accepted what I was saying to them (which is possible, though fine if they didn't), or just figured, fuck it, I'll call it a day. Who knows?

See my previous posts, wherein all is made clear.