Gender, a fluid social construct

vanilla bean · May 18, 2016

catheters? again? really? Welcome back, nursingaround1.

**CalicoKitty, BSN, MSN, RN** · May 18, 2016

Some women have always looked masculine, whether heterosexual, homosexual, bi or transgendered. Also, some men have always appeared feminine, whether heterosexual, homosexual, bi or transgendered. A person is what they say they are. Like pain. A person is in pain regardless of if we recognize it. At the same time, I'd try to make the patient comfortable if they don't want a particular nurse for any reason (be it color, gender, or the perfume), if available. I don't think employees are really able to sue a hospital for a patients' views, but perhaps could sue a patient for harassment or verbal assault (if that were the case). Kids are usually receptive to simple explanations (some women look like men, some men look like women, and some people it's hard to tell - even without sexual preferences mentioned).

Farawyn · May 18, 2016

....Aaaand he's BACK! :)

Then the male looking female RN will cath the patient. The patient can refuse any treatment. If the female patient wants to wait for a female looking female nurse to cath her, she has that right.

allnurses Guide · May 18, 2016

What if a female patient who wants a catheter, requests a female nurse, and the male looking nurse says they identify as a woman.
This may sound silly, but I had a 40yr female colleague (at least she looked female) tell me that gender is a 'fluid social construct' and that it is wrong to assume someone is a man or women just because they look like one.

Well, I would ask you why the gender of the person who said, "gender is a social construct" matters at all.

If this is what society is teaching us, and our children, then what happens when people can't agree on who is man or woman anymore?

I believe this entire discussion is verging on illogical hysteria. Now, even when I know the root of the word hysteria is hyster, referring to the uterus, I'm not at all worried about those who identify differently using the word, and I won't demand that they submit to an examination to clear it all up.

When you say "society can't agree on who is a man or a woman" I will say who decided to make that a group decision in the first place? It's so much more efficient to gather that information from the individual.

As already mentioned above, the way someone dresses is hardly an accurate way to determine that.

I see so many of these gender/catheter hypotheticals lately. In my experience such scenarios are rare, and as such best dealt with by using factors that actually occur, rather than might occur.

aeris99 · May 18, 2016

I was taught in genetics that sex is based on chromosomal arrangement and gender is a social identification, based on the persons choice.

I'd agree with your coworker, regardless of your assessment of their physical appearance.

SnowShoeRN · May 19, 2016

Gender *is* a fluid social construct.

Sex refers to someone's biological status.

https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf

OldDude · May 19, 2016

Maybe just pass out hats at the beginning of the shift...man...woman...no guessing required.

Farawyn · May 19, 2016

Maybe just pass out hats at the beginning of the shift...man...woman...no guessing required.

What color hats for the men and what color for the women?

JustKeepDriving · May 19, 2016

What if a female patient who wants a catheter, requests a female nurse, and the male looking nurse says they identify as a woman.

If the patient is okay with it then the TransFemale nurse can do the catheter.

This may sound silly, but I had a 40yr female colleague (at least she looked female) tell me that gender is a 'fluid social construct' and that it is wrong to assume someone is a man or women just because they look like one.

This is true. Gender is a social construct. It's not like it's biologically embedded in us that women wear dresses and boys like blue. What is biological is sex.

If this is what society is teaching us, and our children, then what happens when people can't agree on who is man or woman anymore?

Well, it use to be that women couldn't wear pants, couldn't vote and didn't become doctors, while men were the primary earners didn't wear makeup and didn't become nurses. I'd say that even for people whose gender is congruent with their sex there has been many changes.

I honestly don't care how someone identifies. You could give me the burliest bear of a dude who tells me that he's post orchiectomy non-binary and my only response is, "What pronoun do you choose to be called by". Nothing about how someone chooses to identify affects me and how I choose to identify.

Of course, in this instance, you'd get the patient a traditional looking female, but then could the male looking nurse, who identifies as female, claim some sort of discrimination, or even blame the employer for putting them in such a humiliating position?

Why? I've had patients that didn't want me to provide care because I looked to young, or they preferred someone of another race, or I reminded them of someone they had a bad history with. I never felt discriminated against. If the request was reasonable I would try and accommodate it the best I could. I don't see how gender identification would be any different.

nurseinthezoo · May 20, 2016

Maybe just pass out hats at the beginning of the shift...man...woman...no guessing required.

Does seem that the world is on its ear these days.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · May 20, 2016

Replied to wrong post