Anyone Else Notice That We Tend to Use Female Candidates First Names But Male Candidates Last Names?

[Joe Nation]

What's up with that? Can anyone explain this distinction. Why are we so comfortable saying Hillary and then talking about her rivals as Cruz, Bush, Walker, etc?

[daleanime]

1. Let me check with Bernie on that....

[MillennialDem]

25. In fairness to Bernie, it may be because of his last name giving the impression of Col Sanders.

[House of Roberts]

26. Or it could be,

via the Thom Hartmann show, we've been having Brunch With Bernie, for close to ten years now.

[MillennialDem]

30. Well that's also part of it I'm sure, though I didn't know Bernie or Thom Hartmann 10 years ago ;)

[valerief]

2. We say Hillary because of Bill, but we say Warren, not Elizabeth. Just two examples. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. That's what I was thinking. I never call Warren 'Elizabeth'. nt

[HockeyMom]

9. Palin and Backman also

on the other side of the coin. Right. Maybe it is simply reserved for just First Ladies? Michelle?

[Alittleliberal]

29. It's just to avoid confusion.

Also no one refers to Jeb as Bush. I've only ever heard him referred to as Jeb. Carter was referred to as Jimmy.

[HockeyMom]

33. Too many Bushes!

You wouldn't know which one. lol

[Justice]

18. Totally agree

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Yep...

it used to be "Bill and Hil"

[Skinner]

3. To be fair: Hillary Clinton's campaigns have encouraged the practice...

...since way back in 1999 when she first ran for Senate.

Plus, it comes in handy to avoid confusion regarding which Clinton you are talking about.

[Sunlei]

20. good points, with the new logo- it is as if Mrs. Clinton says, "Call me Hillary"

I will not like it though when republicans call her anything other then, Mrs. Clinton or Madam President.

[yeoman6987]

4. Busy hasn't announced yet

Maybe once he does the articles will say Jeb.

[stone space]

5. Fine for Cruz and Walker.

But Hillary and Jeb get first name treatment from me, just to avoid confusion.

Bernie's a special case. I should be lumping him in with Cruz and Walker, but I just can't bring myself to call him anything but Bernie.

Force of habit, I suppose.

[djean111]

6. Because if we say Clinton, someone might think we are talking about Bill.

We refer to Elizabeth Warren as Warren, and use "Liz" about as much as we use 'Bernie". In fact, I think we say Bernie a lot more than "Sanders". I do not think this is a sexist thing, if that is what you are getting at.

If Hillary was not married to a very well-known ex-president, we would likely refer to her as Clinton. We refer to Carly Fiorina as Fiorina, we refer to Michelle Bachmann as Bachmann. We refer to Bush as Jeb, a LOT, to differentiate from his brother. As far as Cruz and Walker are concerned, there are lots of other Teds, and Walker is the only Walker running. His first name is as common as his last name, is all.

And I think that if Ms. Clinton did not want to take advantage of her name recognition, she would have asked that a money-raising group be called "Ready for Clinton". And her logo would be a "C" and not an "H".
Not sexist. Just common sense and name recognition.

[Proud Public Servant]

8. We do this in all sorts of areas

Sports comes to mind immediately. Interestingly, it seems somewhat less prevalent in business reporting.

That said, we should note that

(1) on DU we seem to call many Dems and progressives by their first names (Hillary, Bernie, Liz, Sherrod) regardless of gender, unless the name is so generic that it doesn't identify a particular person easily (no one calls John Kerry "John&quot .

(2) Women candidates often encourage this because it "softens" their image. That calculation, of course, takes place in the context of a sexist culture, but it does complicate things.

[Joe Nation]

10. Good points thanks everyone

I've always viewed it as disrespectful to use a woman's first name rather than her title or her last name. I see this practiced in higher education quite a bit and you'd think a more liberal environment would be different. We say Professor Smith for a male but then we see a female professor addressed as Sarah.
When it comes to Hillary Clinton, shouldn't we be saying Secretary Clinton?

[Chan790]

14. Having worked in an academic department...

the differentiation between Prof. Smith and "Sarah" is often at the request of the person being referenced.

One of my bosses was a "Bill" and would not even respond to being called Prof. L_____ because he hated it, thought it was too formal and stuffy for a pothead hippie peace activist. Dr. M_____ likewise would correct anybody (verbally the first time, with the death-stare that could only belong to a young woman who grew up in Nazi Germany thereafter) who called her Ingrid. She didn't go to school for 12 years and two Ph.Ds for strangers to be so familiar. It was always "Doctor M_____" and never "Professor M______" because Dr. means you have a Ph.D and Prof. merely means you're a college-level instructor.

Generally though, the men want to be addressed by title because it sounds authoritative and the women want to be addressed by name because it doesn't sound authoritative but rather friendly and "soft." It's all about how you want to be perceived.

It's often a matter of the addresser as well..."Matt" to me (friends since we were freshmen together) is Dr. H_____ to students and "Professor H" to colleagues. He's a colloquial variation on his last name to his wife and his college nickname to other friends from college.

[MillennialDem]

28. Technically Professor is reserved for those who are tenured or on tenure track and do research and

teach, but out of a sign for respect many students will call any college instructor "Professor ___". Even at a community college. Or will use terms like "My professors this semester are all great!". Though it also boils down to area and upbringing (more common for non first generation students to use professor), I noticed that virtually every student in CA would use the term professor, whereas it's more rare in WI.

That said I prefer use of my first name. Professor ____ sounds stuffy (and I'm not a researcher anyway), I don't have a doctorate so Dr. doesn't apply (would also sound stuffy even if I did), and Ms/Mrs/Miss also sound too high school.

[Travis_0004]

11. Also, Hillary uses her first name only on a lot of campaign materials

Why is her campaign logo an H and not a C? Because she goes by Hillary.

I dont see the issue, and she embraces it, and as others have said, its less confusing to just say Hillary or Jeb.

Warren makes more sense for Elizabeth Warren.

[jobycom]

12. Yes. That's an old feminist observation about the diminutiveization of women.

It's done with famous women everywhere, in politics, business, and just about everywhere else women are professionals.

There are several variations: As with the Clintons, many people call a woman by her first name and man by his last, as if they knew the woman and were on familiar terms with her. But there's also a variation where women are called by a first name instead of getting a title, like Margaret Thatcher as opposed to Prime Minister Tony Blair. With Clinton you'll sometimes hear "Hillary Clinton" and "Former President Clinton," or "Mr. Clinton." And there's the use of the first name with Miss, for younger women, like "Miss Mary," but "Mr. Whatever."

It's not as bad as it used to be, and certainly it's not an absolute, but it's still there. That's one reason I make an effort to call Clinton by her last name, except when it would cause confusion.

Some will claim that Clinton chose to market "Hillary" in this campaign, and that's true, but she chose it because she's fully aware, at least in part because of her last run, that people will call her Hillary anyway. The misogyny was off the charts eight years ago when she ran, even around here. I remember Obama mocking her gun positions by calling her "Little Annie Oakley," for instance (If anyone doesn't see how sexist that was, they've got some growing to do). Rather than fight it, she has decided to use it--a lot of women do that, similar to the way a lot of under-represented people choose to embrace derogative terms.

[karynnj]

13. You have one example -- and there are easier reasons for that

I can say Obama, Biden or Kerry -- and you know exactly who I am speaking of - even though Michelle, Jill and Teresa are all awesome. If I say Clinton's long time policy on something was ...., it is not clear which I am speaking of.

I have tried to use HRC or Hillary Clinton rather than Hillary, but I see no disrespect there. Note that the Republican 2008 VP nominee is usually referred to as Palin and the strange 2012 female candidate was Bachmann - not Sarah or Michelle. (In fact, were Hillary give a more first name, it is likely her initials or full name would be used.

Not to mention, it was no more sexist to speak of "Madonna" than of "Elvis". Note also that three of the 4 Beatles are referred to by their last names -- and it is not that Ringo was either the most talented or popular.

[NYC_SKP]

15. She's a celebrity, like Cher, Madonna, Bono, Sting, and Snooki!

On the left, your left, not her left, is Snooki.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. That was a popular Republican anti Obama jab too 'He's a celebrity candidate'.

[libdem4life]

42. Oh Noes...You dissin' Brittney? Christina? Elvis? LOL .

I vote for Elvis, if he's still in the building. RIP.

[zappaman]

16. I wonder what Warren thinks. n/t

[cali]

17. baloney. BERNIE is in.

[Sunlei]

19. you're right, people do tend to do that. I intend to show disrespect when I type ''Jebbie' like a,

like a toddlers name or type republican with a lower case r.

by the way, I always type nazi with a lower case n and the blasted auto- spell checker ALWAYS auto-caps the N, I have to fix it every time

[oldandhappy]

21. Bernie and Jeb

Worth noticing tho.

[former9thward]

22. Warren is used all the time.

Rarely do I see Elizabeth. Jeb is also used commonly as well as Bernie.

[still_one]

27. Depends to some degree on the difficulty of the name. Arnold Schwarzenegger

many times is referred to as Arnold because of that

Was Sarah Palin referred mostly as Sarah or Palin? I tend to think Palin

Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are routinely referred to as Feinstein and Boxer.

Martha Coakley was referred to as Coakley,

Carly Fiorina is referred to as Carly all the time I think because like "Arnold", her last name may give some people problems, not only in spelling, but pronunciation

[MillennialDem]

31. To really throw a monkey wrench into things, what about those who we typically use both names

Joni Ernst is one I can think of. I never hear her referred to as Joni or Ernst or Senator Ernst.

Ron Johnson and Chuck Schumer are other examples of this, I've noticed at least in the media I listen to or read.

[mythology]

39. That's because nobody wants to acknowledge

Ernst is actually an elected official.

[apnu]

32. Warren disagrees.

Nobody calls her "Elizabeth"

As for Cruz, I like to call him by his actual first name Rafael or "Raffi"

As for Bush, If we're talking W, I call him "Chimpy McDumbass" Jeb, I call "pig boy"

As for Waker, I call him "that fuck up north"

[UCmeNdc]

34. Good Point

Hillery does not sound so serious as Sec. Clinton or Sen. Clinton.

[DFW]

35. You mean like Bachmann and Palin?

Yeah, I noticed that too. Um, er, I mean.......

[MosheFeingold]

36. Tell that to "I like Ike" Eisenhauer and "Give 'em Hell Harry" Truman

The reason people call Hillary "Hillary" is because there are two Clintons in the public eye and if you said "Clinton" people would go "which one? Bill or Hillary?"

It's the same reason "W" was called "W" (and a few names I won't repeat) and "Jeb" is called "Jeb."

By the beard of Abraham, people need to stop tilting at windmills. You sound silly.

[MineralMan]

37. Maybe you should have another look.

You are incorrect.

[treestar]

38. I think Hillary wants to be distinguished from Bill

and uses that on purpose. So we follow.

[Jamaal510]

40. I always say Willard

instead of "Romney".

[treestar]

41. I was just noticing in GD

the use of "Bernie" is pretty much constant.

[whistler162]

45. Or Newt in a earlier era.

[phleshdef]

43. Anyone else notice how wrong the premise of this OP is?

I switch between first and last name of these folks all the time and so do most other people I see posting around here.

[HappyMe]

44. Meh.

I don't think this is a big issue at all.

With Bernie's announcement, I'm just glad I have a candidate to support and work for.

[tblue37]

46. Bernie, Howard, Bill (and among the GOP--Mitt or Willard; Jeb). I think that with Dems, it

is a matter of how familiar the person feels to us--but with Mitt, it's a deliberate expression of contempt.

We call Elizabeth Warren "Warren" most of the time, and Nancy Pelosi "Pelosi." .

[Bonobo]

47. Other than Bernie, Jeb, Mitt you mean? Nt