"I didn't know you were gay"

[ChrisA]

twice this week, I've mentioned to acquaintences of mine that I plan to get into nursing, and the reponse has been a joking "Don't you have to be gay to do that?" sort of response.

Does that stereotype actually still exist? Sheesh. I'll have to let my girlfriend know the bad news. :chuckle

[Rapheal]

Here's a comeback if you want it.

"So I choose a career where I will be surrounded by woman day in and day out. Hmmmm........ How gay is that?"

[Sheri257]

We have five guys in my class. Since one of them keeps hitting on me, I'd say he's definitely NOT gay.

Two of the other men already work in the medical field and have wives who are nurses. They put their wives through nursing school, and now the wives are supporting them as they go through school.

This stereotype is SO old, I wish people would get over it.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

It's funny how society in general approves when women get jobs in traditionally male fields, but raises an eyebrow when men work in traditionally female occupations.

[Deb123j]

There are a couple guys in my pre-req. classes going into nursing, which I think is awesome. However my lab partner (female) said last week that she didn't think guys should become nurses and then take care of women. I told her that was dumb, I had a male nurse helping me breast feed my son in the hospital and it wasn't a big deal (like anything is after you have had a baby)!!!

People are so dumb and prejudicial sometimes!!

[chris_at_lucas_RN, RN]

This isn't any worse than doctors of the female persuasion being assumed to be nurses, or those same docs being referred to as a "female doctor." It is a matter of ignorance and habit.

This is hard wired and historical. People just aren't going to "get over it." Continued awareness and exposure makes a difference over time.

There are so many artificial gender differences that have been overridden in the past fifty years or so--and a lot of other cultural changes that have seemed to go along with it (and possibly contributed to or caused by it).

Thinking back to how things were and how they are, it seems as though great inroads are being made in the "male nurse = gay male" miscontruction too, with a lot less far reaching cultural "damage."

Way to go, Massachusetts!!! (Did you jump to a conclusion just then about me? :rotfl: )

[Energizer Bunny]

LOL @ some of your responses, but it is sad that this stereotype is still alive and going strong.

[Truly_Blessed]

LOL. I have never heard that before. But I was watching "Meet the Parents" last night, and I guess it's suppose to be a "wuss" thing if you are male and a nurse. Whateva! All of the male nurse I have come across at the hospital are outstanding, funny, looney kind of guys. I love male nurses.

[MaggieJo]

This is something that has amazed me since I started nursing school. We have several guys, and people are always making some ridiculous comment about their masculinity. Growing up, my best friends dad was an RN, so it never occurred to me that this would be strange. I guess it's the stereoptypes that one has ingrained in them. It just really aggravates me when I'm trying to get a guy to think about nursing school. Anyway, I like some of you responses. Pretty good comebacks!

-Maggie

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Funny how some of the older pt's always assume that the male nurses are docs.

When I worked LTC, we used this to our atvantage. There were a few pts always refusing their meds, yelling, demanding to see a doctor constantly. We had a male nurse who would put on a lab coat, and tell certain pts that they were disturbing the other pts, and that they should go to sleep now.

It worked every time.

[agent]

I think the tide is turning on this issue

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

... some of the older pt's always assume that the male nurses are docs...

Not just the older ones.

And it doesn't only happen to nurses. (I'm over 40 and just starting school, and get that all the time.)

[Tony35NYC]

I agree that things are changing for men in nursing. Of all the guys in the nursing program at my school, there's only one gay guy that I personally know. There are probably others, but who knows or cares? Aren't there gays working in every other profession out there, too? I've never gotten that gay argument from any of my patients in the hospital. I'm always wearing a white labcoat over my scrubs and most of the time my patients assume that I'm the doctor. Even after I tell some of them I'm a student nurse, they still treat me with more respect than they do the RN who's taking care of them.