MSNBC publishes Truth leaders’ op-ed on naughty nurse Halloween costumes
October 27, 2021 – Today MSNBC posted an op-ed by Truth About Nursing executive director Sandy Summers and senior advisor Harry Summers explaining why the naughty nurse was a bad costume choice for Halloween. Citing recent examples from pop music, the authors noted that the image “reduces a life-saving modern health profession to a tired joke about female sexuality.” That contributes to the high rates of sexual abuse real nurses experience, while undermining their struggle for adequate clinical resources, which is especially pressing during the Covid pandemic. Although nursing remains subject to a number of feminine stereotypes, the naughty nurse is especially damaging because it fuses nurses’ caregiving with easy sex — an offer of unidirectional sexual healing. The op-ed explained that retiring these stereotypes would help build the real respect that would enable nurses to provide better care, stressing the need for better nurse staffing as well as support staff to help manage burdensome charting and other tasks. Finally, the authors urged those who wanted to be a nurse for Halloween to “try scrubs and PPE!” We thank MSNBC.
