Don't carry on nurses...

[Gob]

A health trust has turned down money for heart testing equipment because the cash was raised by male fundraisers dressed up as female nurses.




The chief executive of the trust in Shropshire said the bed push event, which has taken place in the market town of Ludlow for three decades, was insulting and demeaning.

Over the years the bed push has raised tens of thousands of pounds, and funds raised this summer were earmarked to provide ECG equipment at Ludlow hospital.

But bosses at the Shropshire community health NHS trust have written to the Ludlow Hospital League of Friends declining the money.

The chief executive of the trust, Jan Ditheridge, and its chair, Mike Ridley, explained: “The presentation of men dressed as female nurses in a highly sexualised and demeaning way is wrong, very outdated and insulting to the profession.”


https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... s-donation

Most of these politically correct stupidities leave me boggled, but to call the blokes above "highly sexualised"?!?!?!?

[BoSoxGal]

When was the last time you saw a nurse dressed in a shortskirted uniform like those? The two at the far right - one has his brassiere and 'bosom' spilling out of an unbuttoned shirt, the other has a red garter on.

Sorry, but I agree - it's insulting. It's Benny Hill nurse as sexual fetish humor. It's sexist and demeaning.

I've had three surgeries and in every hospitalization, it was the highly skilled nurses who provided 98% of the care that got me well after the surgeons (two women, one man) did their bit. My nurses all told me I was an ideal patient because I said please and thank you and didn't complain and whinge - the stories I heard about what they still put up with from some patients were really shocking to me, people yelling and throwing things and yes, getting grabbed by some male patients.

It takes a lot of brains to get an RN, and even if they're 'just' a CNA or LPN, they do the most important patient-centered work of healthcare and deserve respect as the professionals that they are.

It's nice those men want to raise money for a good cause, but they should have a darts or billiards competition or something along those lines; it's 2017 and high time to show professional women respect - all women, for that matter.

[Gob]

It's Benny Hill nurse as sexual fetish humor. It's sexist and demeaning.

Well you may get off on a sexual fetish of nurses with heavy beards, but for the rest of us it's just men making the event a bit more funny at their own expense. Should we ban drag artists?

It's nice those men want to raise money for a good cause, but they should have a darts or billiards competition or something along those lines;

The irony!! "a darts or billiards competition," how sexist!!!!

it's 2017 and high time to show professional women respect - all women, for that matter.

One would have thought that going to the bother of raising two and a half grand for the hospital would be showing respect.

Each year between 1991 and 2002, (with a couple of exceptions,) I played the Dame in our village panto*. We raised £££ several thousand towards our local RNLI lifeboat, all of which was gratefully received.

Maybe they should have refused it due to my "highly sexualised" portrayal of a plump middle-aged woman.


*To rave reviews I may add!!!

[BoSoxGal]

I'm sorry that the world is changing in ways that upset you, Gob. I know a lot of nurses who would be offended by the way those men are dressed as nurses, and I entirely understand. Maybe if they donned the wigs and wore modest scrubs and sensible clogs or shoes like real nurses do, nobody would be offended and everyone could be happy.

If it's 'no fun' without short short skirts and exposed bosoms, and you don't see how that's sexist . . .

[RayThom]

Alzheimer's... Nurses... Religion... Politics... You name it -- proof positive that everyone needs to be offended by something.

But nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.

[BoSoxGal]

Read here: Phoenix rally

Delivered in his usual total jackass style, of course. He's such a puke. And not a single somber mention of Heather Heyer's murder and the animals who made it happen.

[Gob]

I'm sorry that the world is changing in ways that upset you, Gob.

It's doesn't upset me it offends me, and I have the right not to be offended by anything at anytime, just like anyone else.

I know a lot of nurses who would be offended by the way those men are dressed as nurses, and I entirely understand.

For every one you know, I know a couple of dozen who would think; "good on them for having a laugh". The tyranny of the minority.

Maybe if they donned the wigs and wore modest scrubs and sensible clogs or shoes like real nurses do, nobody would be offended and everyone could be happy.

Maybe if they went further and presented in Burkas no one would be offended, ...oh wait...

Ok, plain Jane nurses, dressed in regulation modest clothing, slightly overweight, possibly lesbian, and not showing any signs that they may, heaven forbid, have any sexuality whatsoever.

If it's 'no fun' without short short skirts and exposed bosoms, and you don't see how that's sexist . . .

It's not that it's no fun...

The curious thing about the British and their predilection for dressing men as women and women as men for entertainment is that it’s so deeply embedded in the culture that we barely notice it as a quirk. It’s only when people from elsewhere start questioning pantomimes or androgynous pop stars or fancy-dress blokes with balloons up their T-shirts that we have a moment’s pause to think, “Hang on a second, we do this a LOT, don’t we?”

It could have started anywhere, but the most relevant precedent to today’s world of men in dresses is the theater of Elizabethan England, in which it was considered unthinkable that a woman would lower herself to being seen on stage pretending to be another woman in public. That’s a man’s job, especially as so many plays contained saucy humor. And so from the start (assuming this is indeed the start), part of the entertainment is watching a man that you know is a man pretending to be a woman, and being the subject of bawdy innuendos about various body parts.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2 ... ng-history

Fuck the PC anti-fun brigade....

[Lord Jim]

I have to say that when I look at this picture:



"highly sexualised" ain't a phrase that comes to mind...

[Guinevere]

So a "bed push" is just that - and apparently often includes costumes, pantomime, and other hilarity.

I don't find men in drag sexual at all, but I did note the article says the Trust asked that the nurses costumes bit be halted the prior year, and that request apparently wasn't honored. Seems to me if you're trying to fundraise for an organization you might want to coordinate with that organization, first.

[Big RR]

Yep, dressing in drag is a key tenet of British humor.

I recall years ago when Eric Idle hosted Saturday Night Live he did a number of short skits (Dragnet, The World of Drag Racing, etc.) which involved men in women's clothes and were always stopped short (by Lorne Michaels I think) because "American audiences won't understand". I'll admit I don't understand it (I never liked Uncle Miltie or Flip Wison or Jonathan Winters or even Johnny Carson in a dress, but I hardly see it as sexualized; more just stupid (to my taste)--of course some of the Monty Python drag skits are hilarious, but then it's Monty Python.

[Joe Guy]

I've come to the conclusion that caricatures should be outlawed. They always exaggerate things.

The total lack of fashion sense of those fundraisers is highly offensive. If those men had worn modest scrubs and sensible clogs, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Until you walk a mile in a nurses shoes, don't assume they wear fashionably inappropriate footwear and out of style outfits. I have a lot of experience with nurses, so I know of which I speak...

[Big RR]

Who's not wearing sensible footwear? Most seem to be wearing athletic footwear/sneakers, which I have seen many nurses wearing. as for the outfits being out of style, maybe that's why they got them cheap at the surplus store.

[Jarlaxle]

I have to say that when I look at this picture:



"highly sexualised" ain't a phrase that comes to mind...

My first reaction is "over the top silly", which I suspect is deliberate.

[Jarlaxle]

Who's not wearing sensible footwear? Most seem to be wearing athletic footwear/sneakers, which I have seen many nurses wearing. as for the outfits being out of style, maybe that's why they got them cheap at the surplus store.

I see sneakers, what look like Crocs, and one dude in boots. Pretty typical cross-section of nurse footwear, actually. (The only nurse I know wears Red Wing hiking boots.)

[Long Run]

The tyranny of the faux-pious minority.

[BoSoxGal]

This photo is from the Wales news service - a group of NHS nurses:



This photo is from a U.K. costume retailer, playing off antiquated stereotypes and male sexual fantasies about nurses:



The nurses have the right to be offended and the hospital has the right to reject funds raised by these means. I'm sure they can find a less discerning charity to donate to.

[Big RR]

The nurses have the right to be offended and the hospital has the right to reject funds raised by these means

Is anyone arguing that nurses do not have the right to be offended or the hospital does not have the right to reject the funds? I haven't seen it; at best I've seen arguments that it's silly for the hospital to reject the funds or that the offense (to the extent any nurse took such offense) is misplaced. FWIW, the article only presents the quotes of two nurses who were not offended (and that is their right as well), and there is no quote from any offended nurse. Now Jan Ditheridge may be a man or a woman (Jan Murray of the Match Game was a man with the first name Jan), but she is identified as CEO and it is not clear whether or not she is a nurse (I would bet most CEOs are MBAs and not nurses or other health professionals), but I don't know. But i will agree with you, anyone who finds it offensive, including nurses, have a right to be offended, and the hospital has the right to rejct the funds.

If they had people dressed like drunk physicians or vampire phlebotomists or tooth extractinf dentists or ... pushing one of the beds, people would have a right to be offended as well.

And humor usually is offensive to someone.

[Lord Jim]

I can guarantee you that this:



Does not play off of any of my sexual fantasies...

[Big RR]

not even my sexual nightmares. And I can't imagine any of them in the nurse costume posted by BSG

[BoSoxGal]

That misses the point entirely, but whatever.