Her name is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Use it. - By Steven Petrow
By Steven Petrow
Writer and freelancer
September 21 at 7:42 PM
Her name matters.
No matter where you stand on Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, it’s hard not to notice the inequality in how the two have been addressed. President Trump has routinely referred to “Judge Kavanaugh.” For instance, the president said earlier this week: “Judge Kavanaugh is one of the finest people that I’ve ever known,” which is the appropriate and respectful manner in which to address him. (When you’ve earned an honorific, people should use it. The rule applies equally to Trump, who is properly addressed as “Mr. President,” even if you’re a Democrat.)
As for Ford, well, the president has not said her name out loud, referring to the psychologist and Palo Alto University professor earlier this week as “that woman.” Only on Friday did he call her “Dr. Ford,” in a tweet that questioned her credibility.
So, too, Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to the president, who repeatedly invoked Kavanaugh’s name during a PBS NewsHour interview with Judy Woodruff, but never called Ford by her name, always using “she,” “her” or “the accuser.” Meanwhile Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) complained in a statement to The Post: “This has been a drive-by shooting when it comes to Kavanaugh. . . . I’ll listen to the lady, but we’re going to bring this to a close.”
The media hasn’t been immune to diminishing Ford’s status; witness the absence of her name in many headlines. A CNN headline this week read, “Lawyer: Kavanaugh Accuser Willing to Testify.” On Friday, Fox News posted this headline on its site: “Trump goes on offensive in Kavanaugh fight, calls on Kavanaugh accuser to provide a police report.” Even The Post is guilty of this, publishing a headline on its site Friday that read, “Trump questions credibility of Kavanaugh accuser, lashes out at Democrats.” As an editor, I know it can be easy not to use someone’s name in a headline for fear that they are not well-known enough, but who following this story doesn’t know Ford’s name by now?
What’s in a name? An awful lot, it turns out. Sarah McBride — a transgender activist who has been frequently “dead named,” or called out maliciously by her birth name — views such acts as “disrespectful and marginalizing”: Your name is “your personhood. It’s the way we make clear that we see and respect someone every single day. . . . A name is one of the first things that’s given to a person when they’re born in a figurative performance of granting that person their individuality and humanity.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/call-her-by-her-name-christine-blasey-ford/2018/09/21/77f3963a-bdd0-11e8-be70-52bd11fe18af_story.html?utm_term=.0e1314a67cd7