Nurses call for an end to “sexy nurse” costumes In late October 2023, the Guardian ran a good item on calls by the Spanish nursing council for an end to the naughty and killer…
Tag: nursing stereotypes
Doc McStuffins
Each episode of Doc McStuffins sends a basic health message, usually in a narrow, physician-centric “diagnosis and treatment” framework. But wait! One of the dolls, Hallie the Hippo, is “Doc’s nurse.” At different points the Hallie character reflects most of the major nursing stereotypes, from low-skilled handmaiden to motherly angel to crusty battle-axe. Her main job often seems to be fetching the Big Book of Boo-Boos for Doc. . The show’s creator has noted that she originally saw the Hallie character as a “fumbling, bumbling mess,”
The Artist Currently Known as Martha
In October 2021, Martha Stewart Living reprinted an image of a Halloween costume Stewart had created in 2016. She wore an old-timey nurse outfit and was covered in blood, as a tribute to Richard Prince’s nurse paintings. This image isn’t very naughty, with limited cleavage, nor very battle-axey, as Stewart looks more terrified than terrifying. Still, after a while, and without the cultural backstory of the paintings, continuing this antiquated imagery isn’t great for a modern profession.
A very cheeky display
In June 2021 Megan posted photos of herself in a naughty nurse outfit on Instagram to promote a new song that was about “shakin’ ass.” That imagery, which has been reproduced in many prominent places, is damaging to nursing in a fairly standard way. But in the video Megan also – for a short time wearing the same naughty nurse outfit – sexually terrorizes and physically disfigures a misogynist U.S. Senator, in a revenge fantasy that fans are meant to admire. And others, we assume, to fear.
Slaying: “Paris Hilton Is a Naughty Nurse”
Two roads diverged in the woods of Halloween 2020, and celebrity mogul Paris Hilton took the one too much traveled, with a tired naughty nurse outfit that undermined real nurses’ efforts to get resources during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Katherine Schwarzenegger kneeled in scrubs with her rescue dog and homemade box structures that honored essential workers, in an effort to at least make things a little better.
The Marvelous Messrs. Mayo
Ken Burns’ two-hour film The Mayo Clinic: Faith – Hope – Science makes a strong case for Mayo physician achievements, highlighting their innovative treatments and progressive financing. But it mainly portrays nurses as good-hearted assistants who couldn’t hope to do as much for patients as the nuns who co-founded the Clinic.
Macho macho man
A strong 2018 item in The Economist discussed the stereotypes that still deter men from nursing, even at a time of critical global shortage. And an NPR report from a few months later offered valuable social science insights that the problem has roots in pervasive male anxiety about manhood. But then the piece seemed to recommend a “real men” approach to nursing recruitment that would reinforce the same regressive gender stereotypes.
Raising Cain
The fourth season of the hospital drama, which aired in summer 2017, still included the competent emergency nurse Kenny. But as always, every other major character was a physician. And even more than in the past, the show portrayed nurses as mere assistants to the physicians, with limited skills and no autonomy—especially in an egregious plotline in which a seemingly gifted nurse turned out to be a physician.
Is the truth out there?
Netflix’s School Nurse Files presents a nurse as quirky paranormal protector As part of Netflix’s apparent effort to present nurse characters who are as different from each other as possible, school nurse…
The Action Figures
An engaging Vox video argues that men should overcome regressive gender notions and enter nursing, which it calls the “robot-proof” “job of the future.” But the video itself reinforces the gendered angel stereotype that nursing is all about “caring and empathy,” ignoring the advanced scientific skills and critical judgments that modern nursing requires.
Who could resist being a “rape-kit nurse”?
One Times opinion piece ably explains the need for more sexual assault forensic nurses. Another looks at barriers to men entering nursing. But both items have clickbait headlines that reinforce stereotypes and call into question why anyone would become a nurse.
Always an Angel
Dissecting ZDogg MD’s “Always a Nurse” Tribute ZDogg’s musical tribute seems like a genuine effort to honor nurses, and a few bits highlight how tough and valuable nursing is. But most of…
The bedpan ceiling
Scholar Linda Shields explains nursing on ABC February 17, 2014 — Today Rebecca McLaren published a remarkable article about public understanding of nursing on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Capricornia…