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?

Because, in a social situation if you did that it would be pretentious even if it is "correct."

v pretentious

That's amazing though that you got £15k off and first choice. Must make sure DH uses his at every opportunity !

Is it unreasonable that the MAIN reason I did mine is so I could use Dr?

Ah - well with the school one, I admit it is partly when they call me Mrs Notmyname, and so (think I said this somewhere else) I sort of want to challenge both of those erroneous assumptions at once. And why would I not challenge them by giving the correct title as well as the correct surname?

But Pendeen, would you expect me to just be called Mrs even though I'm not? And should I give the incorrect answer ('actually it's Miss') rather than the correct one?

This is making me think though.... there are a few people in job #2 who call me Mrs or Miss depending on their whim (it's a school, so titles obv used). I don't correct for various reasons.

But, but but.... dp was once in a situation where over a number of months a colleague thought he had been to university A when he'd actually been to university B. Dp wasn't ever sure whether colleague was joking because the universities are 'rivals' and so he didn't correct although started to wonder whether colleague actually was being teasy or just had it wrong.

Then there was some situation where DP got asked by someone else and had to tell them, in front of said colleague, who was mortified at not having had his mistake pointed out earlier ('why didn't you say, I feel a right idiot now and you must have thought I was one all along' kind of thing.

So what if you suck up Miss or Mrs or whatever it is you're not, and then people think later, why on earth didn't she say? Did she think I would be chippy about it or something?

Given that you don't know what people are going to think is wankery, then, I have decided that it is best to stick with the truth, and let people think what they want.

(sorry for length there!)

What a lot of responses this topic has generated!

Maybe there's enough material here for a Sociology PhD thesis ...

The only time I can see it being necessary to indicate your level of expertise is when you are writing a paper or similar.

You don't put titles on papers. Papers are peer reviewed - if a postgrad student writes good paper (with supervisor) its as valid as if a prof has. If you want to guage an author's experience you look at citation stats for a rough guide.

Yes dp does. I find it a bit wankerish to be honest but it does seem to help to get things done quicker. I don't think the cable people would ever have got round to fitting the cable but for Dr ? pestering to get it done. DP works in a university but not as an academic. He says its the norm to use your Dr title in universities.

ElaineReese

You keep mentioning "colleagues."

That's not what we are discussing. I accepted your argument but I did say social situations.

Someone who, in a purely social setting insists on being called 'Doctor' is being pretentious / pompous / boring.

I don't think I have ever used "any" of my titles in a social setting. What sort of situation do you mean?

Someone who, in a purely social setting insists on being called 'Doctor' is being pretentious / pompous / boring.

I've never come across this in real life, have you?

Yes

Like in the pub, or at someone's barbecue or something...?

haven't read the whole thread but i LOVE the irony of MrsPeterDoherty being against Dr, given that she is presumably named after the wife of a nobel laureate in immunology...

I've got both the reasons people use Dr. I use it cos I like being gender neutral, as well as preferring to avoid any discussion of whether I am "Mrs DP" (no Mum we're not married and frankly you harping on about it to all your friends is unlikely to convince either of us that marriage is a good idea).

I have the great misfortune to have to work with several people who are perfectly good at their jobs but incredibly chippy about everything including use of titles other than "Miss" or "Mrs". They think Dr is about people showing off that they have had more opportunities in life.... so therefore i'm a prize bitch and a nob for using "Dr." It doesn't seem to have occurred to them that I might have benign reasons for doing so, reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Again, the basis of their argument is more likely to make me keep using it.

oh right. i guess Mrs Peter Doherty ould have had some other inspiration then. (whoops ).

If you were a Reverant would you use it as your title?
If you were a Professor would you use it as your title?
If you were a Major would you use it as your title?

If Mr, Mrs, Ms, Rev, Right Hon, etc. are all acceptable forms of address, why isn't Dr?

I guess I was assuming a kind of overlap with colleagues and social situation - like colleagues you think of as friends. Not being introduced at a cocktail party or anything.

As I say - just might as well say the thing that's true, if you're asked, and if someone wants to get chippy about it, I don't really care. I won't force the fact on anyone, or give the information if it's not solicited, but if I'm asked for my title I'll give it, and if I'm addressed by the wrong title, I'll tell people the right one - just as I would (and do) with my first and last names.

I think wankers are just wankers, and will be wankers in any given situation.

Women who choose a gender neutral title, when asked to provide a title by another person, are certainly not wankers.

to that

Hell, who needs the phd? cant anyone just decide to call themselves doctor if they so wish? is it illegal to do so?

flipflop77, I needed a PhD in order to lecture at university, and I couldn't have lied about it as they checked! But I certainly didn't need my PhD for any other job I had, although it made for some very interesting interviews having one and must have been a factor in my getting some of the jobs I got.

I use Dr both on professional correspondance and personal stuff. Since I'm divorced it saves the Miss/Mrs/Ms and I worked bloody hard for it. When I taught in a school I still got called 'Miss', 'Madam' etc but since I've been back working in academia it's first names only as everyone has one! It was actually really good when I taught in school as the kids would all try 'Miss my leg hurts, you're a Dr...' so would open up some interesting conversations.

I don't actually know about the legalities, flipflop77.

Maybe Gillian McKeith could advise?

'or to use her full medical title, Gillian McKeith'!

GM was done by Advertising Standards for using her mail-order PhD (from a non-accredited US university, aka diploma mill, where standards are such that Ben Goldacre's pet cat qualified for one) and calling herself Dr on her food supplements ads, as this could confuse people into thinking she was medically qualified.
If she'd just called herself PhD, or Dr anywhere where it couldn't be confused with being a medic, I think it would have been legal, though.

No, it's not pretentious. You worked hard to earn it.
However, impact is greater if you use it sparingly, and keep it work related.