One thing that’s been bugging me during the during Presidential campaign is the constant refrain of “Hilary and Obama”. Women have historically been referred to by their first names while men are called by their last, as a relic of the times when women mentioned in the news could be presumed to be there for social reasons. (Exceptions included queens, but no one uses royalty’s last names anyhow.) I know that in many cases this is not sexism, even oof the unconscious sort, on the part of the people using that phrase – it’s at least partly a reflection of the Clinton campaign itself, which refers constantly to the candidate as “Hilary”, to distinguish her from Bill. Still, I think it’s a bad choice on their part. Couldn’t they have called her “Rodham Clinton” instead?
Anyway, given all that I was very pleased to see a reference in a recent rowing discussion to “Xeno and Karsten”. It makes perfect sense, since Xeno’s last name is Muller and Karsten’s first name is Ekaterina. Both of those are fairly common, and so they are each known within the rowing community by the more distinctive half of their names.
On a more personal note, I am now officially staying in the Netherlands through April 26.
Yes, but have you noticed that she rarely is referred to as Hillary Rodham Clinton anymore? The Rodham seems to come and go as she sees fit to use it. Right now she seems to be Hillary Clinton but when she was running for senate, she used all three names. Very interesting.
She also consistently uses Hillary on her signs… I don’t think it can be said to be something “done” to her since she seems to prefer it herself.
I missed this one earlier, for some reason, but just saw it when I stopped by your actual site. I’d noticed this too, mainly because I’d been referring to them as either “Hillary and Barack” or “Obama and Clinton” and it always sounds kind of jarring to me. I didn’t know there was a tendency for it historically, though. That’s interesting. (Just as I typed this, Grove came running to the door, held up a picture of Clinton and Obama from a magazine and said, “Look, Mommy! It’s Hiwery Quinton and Arock Amama!” Haha! Precocious little toddler…).