The first presentation of the day was given by Checkers. Likewise, Checkers has been calling Dickinson by her first name throughout the semester, which has been irritating me. There are a bunch of critics who do this, and they are always male. It's generally considered disrespectful and condescending. I personally consider it disrespectful, and it sort of grates on my nerves.
Checkers is an eccentric character, to say the least.
He considers himself a feminist, and he claims he is not being disrespectful. He made the mistake of bringing the issue up in his lecture today. So the professor decided she wanted to open a dialogue on this issue. Checkers said that, since Stevie Smith preferred Stevie, it was appropriate to call Dickinson Emily when doing a comparison. He also said that Dickinson signed her letters Emily, which was evidence of a preference.