Academics using 'Dr' - wankerish?

[RevoltingPeasant]

On the day I got my PhD, the first thing my mum said to me when I rang to say I'd passed was, 'Oh, I do hope you won't call yourself Dr, it's so pretentious...

...and congratulations!'

Anywho, I never get called Dr except on my office door and in rejection letters from journals. But I think most academics do use it in civilian life. I kinda want to. Does this make me a smug git, especially because my subject specialism is in something entirely useless to humanity literature?

Relatives of a close friend have in their cheque books Professor and Dr..... think that is a bit pretentious - singly acceptable but as a double act over-egging the basket methinks!

Interesting that the words "frothing" and "frother" keep being used against people who say using dr is pompous. I've not come across this before. Conjouring up an image of a mad person frothing at the mouth, is that the idea? A hysteric?

Straighttalker has it right, using "dr" in everyday life is a clear indication of an inferiority complex. And accusations of "frothery" similarly speak more about the poster. It's also noticeable on this thread that the dr defenders are trying to point score in an academic "look At me I am cleverer than thou" fashion". So if you are, why the constant need to tell everyone else and for them to acknowledge it? Do athletes wear their medals around their necks every day? Do boyscouts wear their scouting badges when not at scouts? This is why you invite ridicule. At the very least you need to accept that many people view the daily use of dr in this way even if you are happy to dismiss them all as simply "frothers".

Dump the inferiority complex and the "frothers" will magically disappear too.

Everywhere in the world people use it without compunction.

Only in England, where socialist propaganda has brainwashed us to believe it is BAD to be smarter or better educated than someone else, is it considered pretentious (by some).

use it when you like, be proud of what you have worked for!

If you use the title be prepared for all & sundry to tell you their ailments!!!

What Chandon said. Typical British anti-intellectual sneering - it wouldn't happen in any other country. It's not "cool" to be clever.

OP - you have a doctorate, and that means that your title is "Dr". I doubt that anyone here would try to argue that using "Mrs" once you marry makes you a "smug git".

My dad is a doctor phd jobby and he doesn't use it as a title except when he needs to for work - although he'll put phd after his name on uni literature etc - is a lecturer. I know 2 people at work who use theirs and they are utter tossers and civil servants where it really isn't needed. So, my dad is lovely and doesn't use his. Blokes at work, tossers and do. No brainier I think -definitely tosserish.

Also, if your title is Dr, surely it's actually incorrect to use Mr, Miss, whatever, instead? Very bizarre to say that someone using their correct title is wankerish.

You see, I feel (even more strongly after reading this thread) that it's the people who get all shirty about those with PhD's calling themselves Dr that actually have the inferiority complex. Yes, someone having a professional title doesn't make them a better person than you - of course not. So if that's the case, why is it a problem that they use their accurate, earned title? Seems like it's other people with a chip on their shoulders about being 'inferior' that don't like it. What was it Eleanor Roosevelt said about that again?

I believe she said that if you are pompous people will laugh at you

We have a LOT of patients who do that when filling in their registration form at the dentist where I work..personally I think its a bit but it's fair enough I suppose.

OH is probably the most unassuming unpretentious man I know, but he uses his title. It gives him credibility in his field of work. As he is self employed anything that improves his standing with his customers helps.

He uses Dr when form filling because it is his correct title.

We did have a heart stopping moment on a flight once when over the intercom came "would Dr Bunbaker make himself known to the crew". I thought "oh no, someone's had a heart attack" It turned out that they merely wanted to check where we were sitting because I had ordered a vegetarian meal - phew!

Another time we were on a short cruise and we were summoned to dinner the captain's table. I'm sure it was because of his title. His response was that he didn't really want to sit at a table with a load of social climbers, but we had to go because it would have been rude not to. And yes, there were a couple of terribly snobby social climbers on the table. We ignored them and got chatting to another couple who were just as about being invited to eat at the captain's table.

I'm confused about the flight thing, I neither have a title or profession on my passport. I presume it would be the name under which you had booked your tickets that would include your title.

IMO, if you've earnt it, use it. It should be cool to be clever but unfortunately in our British way, we're embarrassed to shout about our achievements.

I love MN.

Relatives of a close friend have in their cheque books Professor and Dr..... think that is a bit pretentious - singly acceptable but as a double act over-egging the basket methinks!

Oooh, I would love OH and I to be able to put Professor and Dr Ithaka on our cheque bok - how cool would that be?!

Sadly, we are insufficiently qualified. Anyone who has got the title - make the most of it, I say. Even more satisfying now you know you are winding up some people by using it!

It sounds as if we'll have to agree to differ.

Some people think that in situations where a title is required you should give your correct title.

Others apparently think you should only ever give Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms and never any other title.

Still others think that the second rule is correct for everyone except medical doctors who get a special exemption.

"I presume it would be the name under which you had booked your tickets that would include your title."

Exactly. I can't check OH's passport right now as he is in the far East, but I know that airlines are sticklers for getting every detail about your name correct.

My passport doesn't have a title on.

If people assume the title 'Dr' is an indicator of social prestige, then our postman must be baffled to see the amount of mail addressed Dr HardCheese and Dr HardCheese'sPartner (we are a double-doctorate household) coming to our battered little flat in an unglamorous bit of north London.

Seriously, I've never had my title get me an upgrade or a captain's table invite. My (straight, male) partner's flirtation with the maitre d' did once see us get a table with no reservation in a Soho restaurant while Rick Stein had to wait in the queue looking sour, though.

My passport doesn't, I checked this last year as I had booked some tickets giving my title as Ms, they arrived with Mrs on, I checked the passport because if it had a title it would have been Ms, but there was none.

EssentialFattyAcid - the 'Frothing Beserkers' was a thread, you obviously missed it. Discussing people getting massively over-hot under the collar at things that don't really matter, and thus outing themselves as chippy knob-ends. Hence the 'frothing' references. Not sure if it was in Chat, if not, you could do a search. :)

straighttalker -'Out of work I'm Ms/Mrs' - so you change title depending on...what? How you want to be perceived? Out of work hours ? Shocking.

So thats, what, three titles you have in use at any one time? Sheesh. Overthinking it, much?

If I never got asked if I was Mrs or Miss, I'd never say 'Dr'. I would never expect anyone to call me it unless they felt the need to use a title, in which case that is the title to use.

When I had to get a CRB check, they rang up and said 'you've put Dr, but are you actually Miss, or Mrs?'

If I never got asked if I was Mrs or Miss, I'd never say 'Dr'.

That.

I'm with Elaine on this too.

In fact with students, the main thing in terms of address is to make them realise it's the done thing to call me by my first name! On the first page of any powerpoint presentation I give in lectures or seminars, though, I put Dr Elaine Reese (well not that, my real name, obv) and my email address though, because I think it is relevant to what I'm doing that they know my qualifications for doing it.

Elaine

Yeah, it's the over-complication, mostly. I normally use Dr at work (where it's obviously relevant) and Ms outside, but then I have Dr on one bank account, Ms on another, Miss at my GP's surgery (because I am UNMARRIED and therefore MUST be Miss), Mrs at the hospital (because I am OVER THIRTY and therefore too old not to be married), and 'you there love' to the postman.......etc

I don't think I'm superior to anyone I KNOW I am but I just want one simple title for catch-all use. If anyone ever assumes I'm a medic, I guess that's just their assumption and I'll disabuse them.