Comments on: McCain Webpage Doesn’t Recognize Lady Doctors

By: Anyc

Anyc — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:28:21 +0000

I don’t recall anything in the above post that says Lisa was “offended” by anything; she did use the word “bizarre”, though. Questioning why things like honorifics on such forms is interesting for a lot of us (and if they weren’t important, than why the insistence on using them?)

By: Straight Women are Women, Gay Women are Gay, and All Women are Men » Sociological Images

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:32:08 +0000

[...] at Sociological Images are having fun with forms lately (see here and here). This time the fun is thanks to Bri A. who sent us some screen shots from the website [...]

By: Rebekah

Rebekah — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:44:56 +0000

@Cycles

Yes, the Detroit Opera House uses a computer database system called Tessitura that comes with a predetermined list of honorifics.

As we are limited by both time and budget, customizing this list is often difficult for us to do, but we do appreciate the feedback.

Tessitura is a widely used database CRM system in the U.S. and Canada by arts and cultural institutions.

-The Detroit Opera House

By: Brandon McKane

Brandon McKane — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:16:31 +0000

Don’t you think this is getting a little out of control?

By: Tom Adams

Tom Adams — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:13:25 +0000

Interesting that only one comment (antigone’s) mentions the most interesting part: the erasing of one member of a couple (inevitably the female member of a heterosexual couple).

Another interesting point is that it’s a contact form – why is it asking for the names of one/two people? Most likely it was only one person who made the query, and if it was more than one person, what’s the chance that somebody would make the query with their spose? It’s equally likely that one could be making the query with a business partner, a friend, parent, etc.. I don’t know about America, maybe it’s a hobby to contact senators with one’s legal spouse.

By: antigone

antigone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:00:17 +0000

Note that there is not room for two names. The reason & Mrs. is even an option is because the woman is conveniently erased. It wouldn’t work with a Mr. and Mr. because who would be erased??? Sure you could put two names in each box, but that would really confuse that heck out of their database software. There is no way to write as a couple if half of that couple isn’t being erased.

On the topic of clueless databases, I am registered with my alumni association as Ms. Myfirst Mylast. I added my husband to my profile as Mr. Hisfirst Hislast. Received an invitation to an event for Mr. & Mrs. Hisfirst Mylast. ?!?!?

By: rachel

rachel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:26:51 +0000

they

By: Scapino

Scapino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:39:14 +0000

Again, the non-.gov website, over which McCain’s staff probably has much more control, does not require an honorific.

http://www.johnmccain.com/donate/default.aspx

It’s probably a system limitation, as the vast majority of other Senators’ websites require an honorific as well.

By: WanderingOak

WanderingOak — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:17:52 +0000

More than likely the grocery lists of honorifics were built into whatever databases were being used to collect information from the websites. Yes, it would probably be fairly simple for a database administrator to add to the list, most systems such as this are not overly customized before they deploy. They are usually deployed as quickly as possible, with minimal testing. If changes are made after the system is deployed, the system administrators risk invalidating data that was collected before the change.

By: Luna

Luna — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:48:43 +0000

I work at a church with a female minister. I cannot tell you how much mail we get addressed to “The Pastor’s Wife”. Invitations to Rev. K___ and wife. Etc. We always reply that Rev K is unable to attend, and that she is currently single and heterosexual. However, should either of those conditions change, they’ll be certain to attend. :)

By: Catherine

Catherine — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:03:26 +0000

I guess so! It's like rachel said above us: "well, in their world, them types of people don’t exist…."

By: Jo Schmidt

Jo Schmidt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:49:39 +0000

I was just about to make the same point – you can be a married lesbian if you happen to also be a doctor in McCain’s world?

By: gwen

gwen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:41:07 +0000

Sorry–I took the link out since it’s not working right.

By: wondering

wondering — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:12:35 +0000

The link for the large version doesn’t seem to be working – I’m getting a link to GMail with a message telling me to sign into “my Contexts Magazine account”.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:48:29 +0000

And by the powers of heterosexism, sexism, and oversight combined, the list covers female doctors married to women!

The McCain Web site has employed write-in boxes before. With the number of (combinations of) honorifics, it really would be the best option.