No Chaser

"Doctor"

Walking the dogs in the park down the street, I often meet a man, Dr. X, who is on occasion wearing a fleece jacket with his name "Dr. X" embroidered on the left just above his heart and just underneath a patch identifying the pharmaceutical company that so graciously provided him with this personalized garment.

And, as great as is my horror at pharmaceutical companies and their unethical financial wooing of medical professionals,  I shudder more completely at the idea of walking around with one's name pronouncing itself from one's chest, and not only one's name, but one's title as well.

Now, I can also append "Dr." to my name, and while I have no one wooing me with embroidered fleece jackets (or cheese baskets or scuba vacations for that matter), I could easily find some service that would embroider my name on any item of apparel I liked.  But, why would I?  What does sporting "Dr. NC" on my person do for me?  What does wearing his "Dr. X" fleece do for Dr. X, aside from keeping him warm?

I only know what it does not do.  It does not endear me to him.  It does not fill my mind with pleasant thoughts about his character.  It does not make me want to engage him in conversation except perhaps about his personalized fleece jacket.
 

posted by: NoChaser at February 20, 2007 12:00 | link | comments (2) |

Comments:

#1  21 February 2007 - 08:00

 

i'll pay you good cash money to wear a fleece that has dr. nc embroidered on it. the story kind of makes me feel sad for dr. x that he has to depend on this public proclamation of his education (and his connections to pharm companies) for some sort of recognition. or maybe he just liked the free fleece. but i think if i got a free fleece like that, i'd rip out the embroidery, thread by thread, so as to redeem an otherwise usable garment.
-- rg

Mo'nonymous

#2  22 February 2007 - 10:26

 

I forget if I asked you this, but are you sure he isn't wearing it ironically? Or that it's even really his? (think of the myriad bowling or service station shirts that have found a second life as such ironic garments which are in fact mocking the class differentiation between the current and former wearer) Even if he's not being expressly ironic, I think the fact that others do such things could be seen as repurposeing the meaning of such objects. But I'll talk to just about anyone, as you know.

I might wear such a fleece (I have, in fact, worn a corporate fleece) not because of what it says about me, but because it's a garment and not an indicator of the state of my soul (and ripping out the embroidery would probably make it look worse). But if my soul really is in such a state that I need the pallid affirmation that such an article provides, how sad is that?

schoolsmelt

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