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Mary Beard’s proper title would be Prof. Beard of course. Something she extended the courtesy of to him, but apparently he couldn’t be bothered to extend the same to her.

The falling back on 'I got more citations than you, so ner' isn’t exactly a good look either.

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Taleb calling people Ms and Mr here was obviously about being firm. As in Agent Smith saying "MISTER Anderson". If anyone wants to suggest that Talib pulled some kind of gender card on her, that's pathetic. It actually strengthens the idea that academia needs to be wary of identity politics creeping in (and also bad manners).

Btw Taleb was a huge fan of Beard. Until a few days ago that is.

Nice use of the passive voice there.

In what way am I 'pulling the gender card' exactly?

That's what the Ms vs Prof thing was about.

It would have been equally sloppy in the circumstances to use "Mr Beard" had Taleb been arguing with a man. When arguing with someone on their academic specialism using an incorrect title looks like a subtle (but deniable! how cute) insult. No gender politics required.

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