Back In The Saddle

So, life's been a bit shit of late and I've not written anything in ages.  Then, last week, I heard (of all things) Alistair Campbell's Diaries on Radio 4 where he said "the only way to survive depression is to try and get something good from it".  Not exactly earth shatteringly profound, but it kind of struck a chord.  I've ended up with more free time than before and I might as well make use of it.  I've got a project in mind, but I'm also going to try and make time to post more often here too.  That said, a week later and I still hadn't actually written anything when this article in the Herald caught my eye:

Male, Pale and Stale (hat-tip to the Alternative Celt for first bringing it to my attention).

Go read it.  It's... perfectly competant journalism, which is about as much as one can hope for these days.  I'll wait...

[Muzak plays.  It's probably The Girl From Ipanema, but you can't be sure.]

Back?  Good.  I wonder if anyone else noticed the thing that annoys me?  I'll give you a clue, it's in paragraph 11.  Anything?  More specifically, it's the first line.  In fact, it's

"Ms Kenny and Ms Mackay claim the success..."

 Still wondering what the hell I'm harping on about?  Ms Kenny and Ms Mackay.  These are two Ph.D holding professionals.  We know they have Ph.Ds because the Herald told us so in the fourth paragrpah when it refered to them as Dr.  Why the hell have they been stripped of their titles?  I've never seen this happen to a male academic.  You don't suddenly become "Mr" after the first use of "Dr".  I don't think I've ever seen it happen to women either before now, come to think of it.

So what's going on?  There are two reasons I can think of for using Ms here.  One is that, for some bizarre reason, this was the stated preference of Drs Kenny and Mackay.  It is possible.  People do odd things, after all.  The other is that the Herald feels that Kenny and Mackay's gender is more relevant to their findings than their qualifications.  "Look," it seems to say, "it's no wonder they think more women should be in power, they're women!  And bless their little cotton socks, they're using that delightful 'Ms' title, as if they have a value beyond their marital status!  Aww, they probably think they're feminists, too!"

The strangest thing about all this is that the article as a whole is very friendly to Dr Kenny and Dr Mackay's points.  There are quotes from a sympathetic female local councillor.  There is pretty in-depth coverage of the research (by newspaper standards).  There's not even a dissenting voice.  So why this underhanded demotion?  Is it a bitter sub taking a stab at women?  Someone higher up who doesn't like the agenda but can't swing the Herald away from the (generally) feminist left?  Or is the whole piece just a re-written press release and some tired journo didn't think about what the change implied?

Damned if I know.  Still, it got me writing again, so I guess that's something.

Next time: back to wittering about video games in a fashion no-one cares about!