Around the time I was finishing up my Ph.D. thesis, I was trying to come up with a good title–something more grabby than “Topics in Image Reconstruction for Emission Tomography”–and one of the other students said: How about something iike, Female Mass Murderers: Babes Behind Bars? That sounded good to me, and I was all set to use it. I had a plan: I’d first submit the one the boring title–that’s how it would be recorded in all the official paperwork–but then at the last minute I’d substitute in the new title page before submitting to the library. (This was in the days of hard copies.) Nobody would look at the time, then later on, if anyone went into the library to find my thesis, they’d have a pleasant surprise. Anyway, as I said, I was all set to do this, but a friend warned me off. He said that at some point, someone might find it, and the rumor would spread that I’m a sexist pig. So I didn’t.
I was thinking about this after hearing this report based on a reading of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s undergraduate thesis. Although in this case, I suppose the title was unobjectionable, it was the content that bothered people.