SUGGESTION – IDST 398U: Feminism as Ideology

Christina Farmer

March 1, 2021 at 4:54 pm

IDST 398: FEMINISM AS IDEOLOGY
Assignment Due Tuesday by 5 pm
By Christy Farmer

Is Jill Biden a Doctor?

As the 46th First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden has a strange job. Dr. Biden was not elected to her position; she received it simply by being married to the man elected by the people. There is no job description (as there is for the President in the US Constitution) but she is expected to do great things. Her predecessors have been given honorary seats on the floor of Congress (Madison), were the unpaid President’s secretary (Polk), were writers (Taft), artists (Wilson), singers (Arthur), Senate Aids (Truman), Emmy award winners (Kennedy), founded substance abuse treatment centers (Ford) and were Senators (Clinton), mothers (many), teachers (many) as well as having other accomplishments. (See more impressive First Lady ) The First Lady’s job is simply “White House Hostess” and she is in the public’s eye whether she wants to be or not. Every decision is either applauded or disparaged and usually both.

President Biden was sworn in about a month ago and Dr. Jill Biden has been lauded and vilianzed nearly daily since for her choices. She has been praised for her commitment to education and support for military families but also criticized for having . Of course, being a woman meant her brings up nearly 2.4 million hits. In contrast, Vice President Harris’s husband ’s inauguration outfit has about 196,000 hits. I am willing to consider that might be because of the lower ranking job but I doubt Mr. Emhoff’s accessories would get as much attention as .

By any measure, is an impressive human. She holds multiple degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Masters of Education, Master of the Arts and a Doctorate of Education. She is in touch with the realities of modern marriage and blended families having divorced her and marrying a widower with his own children (that she reared as her own) and then having a biological child. She has been an educator for 30+ years and has advocated for for many years. Dr. Biden is continuing to virtually teach and is the first First Lady to hold a paid position separate from the White House while her husband is President. She does much and is a fierce supporter of . She was also Second Lady from 2009 to 2017.

None of these achievements mattered to Joseph Epstein who wrote in the Wall Street Journal on December 11, 2020 voicing his opinion that Dr. Biden should drop her “Dr.” credentials.

The article was panned by the , , , , and others. quickly (within three days) stripped Epstein of his emeritus lecturer position. Paul A. Gigot Epstein’s opinion piece as a political stunt by the Biden campaign. Epstein defended himself by saying (I am paraphrasing) that people can’t take a joke especially “among the ”. Overwhelmingly, people took umbrage at Epstein’s article. Dr. Biden responded in that the article was a “surprise” because she is proud of her doctorate. Michelle Obama wrote a loving tribute to Dr. Biden on that highlights the many problems with Epstein’s article.

I have two separate major problems with the article.

My first problem is that the article is condescending. My second problem is that the article is misogynistic. While condescension toward women and misogyny are very similar, Epstein’s article does both spectuarly. Epstein calls Dr. Biden”kiddo” as the seventh word in the article. While that might be a sweet word to use when you are talking to an actual child you like, it is not a word to use for an adult you do not know. Epstein “offers advice” when none was requested because he thinks all women want the input from all men about what she is allowed to call herself. Epstein says using “Dr. Jill Biden” as her name is fraudulent and comic because in his opinion the degree she earned is not worthy of the Dr. honorific. Without libeling himself, he puts down her college. He calls her “Dr. Jill.” He says the title of her dissertation is “unpromising” (this one is particularly nasty because her dissertation is called “Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs” and teaching at the community college level and making community college affordable for all has been a life-long effort for Dr. Biden). Epstein does manage to pack much misogyny in the first paragraph. The second and third paragraphs are all Epstein’s own accomplishments and why he is allowed an opinion on the subject of Dr. Biden’s name. In succeeding paragraphs he makes fun of her age and how recently she received her doctorate. Epstein was also very careful to ignore any females in his article and uses words such as “statesmen” and “rich men ” except when he is complaining about African-American women receiving honorary degrees. Just in case you do not know that Epstein is a curmudgeon, he finishes the article by calling the White House “the best public housing in the world” raising the question if he has ever heard of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.

I did some research to uncover if are (sex offender) and (author of the article) are related since they have similar disrespectful views about women. I found no evidence they are closely related as Epstein is a

I believe that Dr. Biden should be allowed to use Dr. as she earned the title. She did the work and deserves the accolades.

This one article reflects bell hooks’ arguments that women are disrespected in the workplace and proves the documentary’s point that decades of feminism has moved the bar some toward equality but not far enough and reinforces Solnit’s articles that the greatest threat to women is men.

I have some questions that may or may not have answers below.

Would a man be asked to not call himself by an honorific he earned? I could not find any articles where this has happened but by the sheer number of people in all of mankind, I am sure it has happened; however, articles from and show this is a bigger problem for women.

Why do men think they can dictate how a woman addresses herself? This is similar to Miss Mary Jones marrying Mr. Mike Smith and they became Mr. and Mrs. Mike Smith with Mary’s name and identity being entirely eliminated and replaced by only Mrs.

Why, when misogyny is called out, is “You can’t take a joke!” an acceptable defense?

Why are women’s accomplishments seen as less than a man’s?

I noticed that more women with Phds had articles about the importance of using Dr. and the overriding reason was men were assumed to be in charge when the title wasn’t used. Why in 2021 are we still assuming men are in charge?

Would Epstein call a male contemporary “Kiddo”? (He is 84.)

Did you notice I did not give Epstein an honorific in the article? 🙂

This was emailed on Feb 21 because the website was down.

One Comment

Christina Farmer

March 1, 2021 at 4:54 pm

IDST 398: FEMINISM AS IDEOLOGY
Assignment Due Tuesday by 5 pm
By Christy Farmer

Is Jill Biden a Doctor?

As the 46th First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden has a strange job. Dr. Biden was not elected to her position; she received it simply by being married to the man elected by the people. There is no job description (as there is for the President in the US Constitution) but she is expected to do great things. Her predecessors have been given honorary seats on the floor of Congress (Madison), were the unpaid President’s secretary (Polk), were writers (Taft), artists (Wilson), singers (Arthur), Senate Aids (Truman), Emmy award winners (Kennedy), founded substance abuse treatment centers (Ford) and were Senators (Clinton), mothers (many), teachers (many) as well as having other accomplishments. (See more impressive First Lady ) The First Lady’s job is simply “White House Hostess” and she is in the public’s eye whether she wants to be or not. Every decision is either applauded or disparaged and usually both.

President Biden was sworn in about a month ago and Dr. Jill Biden has been lauded and vilianzed nearly daily since for her choices. She has been praised for her commitment to education and support for military families but also criticized for having . Of course, being a woman meant her brings up nearly 2.4 million hits. In contrast, Vice President Harris’s husband ’s inauguration outfit has about 196,000 hits. I am willing to consider that might be because of the lower ranking job but I doubt Mr. Emhoff’s accessories would get as much attention as .

By any measure, is an impressive human. She holds multiple degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Masters of Education, Master of the Arts and a Doctorate of Education. She is in touch with the realities of modern marriage and blended families having divorced her and marrying a widower with his own children (that she reared as her own) and then having a biological child. She has been an educator for 30+ years and has advocated for for many years. Dr. Biden is continuing to virtually teach and is the first First Lady to hold a paid position separate from the White House while her husband is President. She does much and is a fierce supporter of . She was also Second Lady from 2009 to 2017.

None of these achievements mattered to Joseph Epstein who wrote in the Wall Street Journal on December 11, 2020 voicing his opinion that Dr. Biden should drop her “Dr.” credentials.

The article was panned by the , , , , and others. quickly (within three days) stripped Epstein of his emeritus lecturer position. Paul A. Gigot Epstein’s opinion piece as a political stunt by the Biden campaign. Epstein defended himself by saying (I am paraphrasing) that people can’t take a joke especially “among the ”. Overwhelmingly, people took umbrage at Epstein’s article. Dr. Biden responded in that the article was a “surprise” because she is proud of her doctorate. Michelle Obama wrote a loving tribute to Dr. Biden on that highlights the many problems with Epstein’s article.

I have two separate major problems with the article.

My first problem is that the article is condescending. My second problem is that the article is misogynistic. While condescension toward women and misogyny are very similar, Epstein’s article does both spectuarly. Epstein calls Dr. Biden”kiddo” as the seventh word in the article. While that might be a sweet word to use when you are talking to an actual child you like, it is not a word to use for an adult you do not know. Epstein “offers advice” when none was requested because he thinks all women want the input from all men about what she is allowed to call herself. Epstein says using “Dr. Jill Biden” as her name is fraudulent and comic because in his opinion the degree she earned is not worthy of the Dr. honorific. Without libeling himself, he puts down her college. He calls her “Dr. Jill.” He says the title of her dissertation is “unpromising” (this one is particularly nasty because her dissertation is called “Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs” and teaching at the community college level and making community college affordable for all has been a life-long effort for Dr. Biden). Epstein does manage to pack much misogyny in the first paragraph. The second and third paragraphs are all Epstein’s own accomplishments and why he is allowed an opinion on the subject of Dr. Biden’s name. In succeeding paragraphs he makes fun of her age and how recently she received her doctorate. Epstein was also very careful to ignore any females in his article and uses words such as “statesmen” and “rich men ” except when he is complaining about African-American women receiving honorary degrees. Just in case you do not know that Epstein is a curmudgeon, he finishes the article by calling the White House “the best public housing in the world” raising the question if he has ever heard of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.

I did some research to uncover if are (sex offender) and (author of the article) are related since they have similar disrespectful views about women. I found no evidence they are closely related as Epstein is a

I believe that Dr. Biden should be allowed to use Dr. as she earned the title. She did the work and deserves the accolades.

This one article reflects bell hooks’ arguments that women are disrespected in the workplace and proves the documentary’s point that decades of feminism has moved the bar some toward equality but not far enough and reinforces Solnit’s articles that the greatest threat to women is men.

I have some questions that may or may not have answers below.

Would a man be asked to not call himself by an honorific he earned? I could not find any articles where this has happened but by the sheer number of people in all of mankind, I am sure it has happened; however, articles from and show this is a bigger problem for women.

Why do men think they can dictate how a woman addresses herself? This is similar to Miss Mary Jones marrying Mr. Mike Smith and they became Mr. and Mrs. Mike Smith with Mary’s name and identity being entirely eliminated and replaced by only Mrs.

Why, when misogyny is called out, is “You can’t take a joke!” an acceptable defense?

Why are women’s accomplishments seen as less than a man’s?

I noticed that more women with Phds had articles about the importance of using Dr. and the overriding reason was men were assumed to be in charge when the title wasn’t used. Why in 2021 are we still assuming men are in charge?

Would Epstein call a male contemporary “Kiddo”? (He is 84.)

Did you notice I did not give Epstein an honorific in the article? 🙂

This was emailed on Feb 21 because the website was down.

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