Dear Reader,
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Any views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and/or participants and do not necessarily reflect the views, policy, or position of The Dermatologist or HMP Global, their employees, and affiliates.
Chief Medical Editor
I need to write a complaint letter to a business that normally provides great service. The letter needs to be formal and respectful. Addressing the letter “To Whom It May Concern” seems too impersonal. A hundred or so years ago, “Dear Sir” might have been adequate, but in my lifetime, addressing both men and women became the norm. “Dear Sir or Madam” sounds archaic and, worse, it is not inclusive of those who do not fit the binary categorization.
I think all of us want to be respectful of other people. I certainly do. I grew up in a heteronormative, binary world. The language we tended to use did not facilitate thinking any other way. But I am okay with change and uncertainty. We used to use Mrs. or Miss. Because there could be doubt, Ms. was developed and incorporated into daily use. What salutation do we use if we do not know if the person we are addressing uses Mr. or Ms. or neither of those?
It costs nothing to be respectful of others. It is especially nice to be so toward people who experience discrimination or its effects. I found good advice on gender-inclusive language at a Government of Canada website.1 It suggested simply omitting any references to gender. For my purposes, it suggested using “Dear Customer Service Manager.” That seems respectful and fully inclusive with no downside that I can think of.
Well, dear reader, I hope you find the articles in this issue valuable. We dermatologists care for a very diverse patient population. Ensuring that we do not discriminate on the basis of anything other than excellence in who we work with and who we train is important to us and a major focus of this month’s cover story. Feel free to send your feedback to us at dermeditor@hmpglobal.com. You can address your feedback to “Dear Editor” if you like. “Dear Steve” works, too.
